India’s death toll from Covid-19 crossed the grim landmark of 200,000 cases on Wednesday, the deadliest so far, as the country continues to struggle against acute shortages in oxygen, medical supplies, vaccines, beds and hospital personnel.
In the last 24 hours, India registered 360,960 new cases, the world’s single-day highest, taking the total to nearly 18 million. With 3,293 new deaths, the total number of fatalities rose to 201,187.
The devastating second wave of infections has seen record surges of at least 300,000 new infections each day for the past week, with the country’s poorly-funded healthcare system buckling under the weight. Crematoriums are running out of space, with funerals held in parking lots, and parks converted into makeshift cremation grounds.
Analysts and news media say official government figures on the pandemic are vastly underestimated in a nation of over 1.3 billion, where numerous cases and deaths in homes,
private hospitals, villages and rural areas go unreported.
Ambulances lined up for hours in the capital, New Delhi, to take the bodies of Covid-19 victims to makeshift crematorium facilities in parks and parking lots. Oxygen remains scarce in hospitals in and around the capital, despite government promises to improve supplies. Many struggling for breath flocked to a Sikh temple on the city’s outskirts, hoping to secure some of its limited supplies of oxygen.
In its weekly bulletin, the United Nations World Health Organization said that India accounted for 38% of the 5.7 million cases reported worldwide to it last week. It said a variant of the coronavirus feared to be contributing to a surge in cases in the country has been found in at least 17 other nations as well.
