Hindu group touts cow urine elixir for coronavirus

Dozens of Hindu activists held a cow urine party in the Indian capital Saturday to protect themselves from the new coronavirus, as countries around the world struggle to control the deadly pandemic. Members and supporters of All India Hindu Mahasabha staged fire rituals and drank from earthen cups to fight COVID-19 at the gathering in New Delhi dubbed a "gaumutra (cow urine) party".

Many in the Hindu-majority nation of 1.3 billion consider cows sacred and in recent years have made several assertions about the liquid being an elixir, claims that critics have rejected as quackery."Whoever drinks cow urine will be cured and protected," Hari Shankar Kumar, one of the volunteers at the event, told AFP as he served the "remedy" in brown clay cups.