India in crisis
• New world record for daily infections for third day running with nearly 347,000 cases • 1 Covid-19 death in under every four minutes in Delhi as capital city's health system buckles • Hospitals across the country struggling without enough oxygen supplies
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The Indian Air Force picking up cryogenic oxygen containers in Singapore.
PHOTO: SGININDIA/ TWITTER
NEW DELHI • India's coronavirus infections rose by 346,786 overnight, the Health Ministry said yesterday, setting a new world record for the third consecutive day, as overwhelmed hospitals in the country begged for oxygen supplies.
India is in the grip of a rampaging second wave of the pandemic, hitting a rate of one Covid-19 death in just under every four minutes in New Delhi as the capital's underfunded health system buckles.
The government has deployed military planes and trains to get oxygen from the far corners of the country to Delhi.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) also airlifted four cryogenic tanks yesterday from Singapore's Changi Airport. The empty tanks will be used to transport oxygen in India, The Times of India reported.
"We stand with India in its fight against Covid-19," Singapore's diplomatic missions in New Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai tweeted.
"Through a bilateral and multi-agency effort, an @IAF_MCC transport plane picked up four cryogenic oxygen containers at @ChangiAirport in Singapore this morning."
Television footage showed an oxygen truck arriving at Delhi's Batra Hospital after it issued an SOS saying it had 90 minutes of oxygen left for its 260 patients.
"Please help us get oxygen, there will be a tragedy here," Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday.
The crisis is also being felt in other parts of the country, with several hospitals issuing public notices that they do not have medical oxygen. Local media reported fresh cases of people dying in the cities of Jaipur and Amritsar for lack of the gas.
India on Thursday surpassed the United States' world record of 297,430 single-day cases, making it the global epicentre of a pandemic that is waning in many countries.
Covid-19 deaths across India rose by 2,624 over the past 24 hours, the highest daily rate for the country so far. The country has now recorded a total of 16.6 million cases, including 189,544 deaths.
Health experts said India became complacent in the winter, when new cases seemed under control at about 10,000 a day, lifting restrictions that allowed for the resumption of religious gatherings and elections.
Others said that it could also be a more dangerous variant of the virus coursing through the world's second-most populous country, where people live in close proximity, often six to a room.
Covid-19: India's worst-hit states
MAHARASHTRA
The western state recorded 66,836 cases and 773 deaths yesterday, its highest spike in a single day. The state alone is responsible for 19.3 per cent of India's new cases. It has an overall tally of 4,161,676 infections and 63,252 deaths.
UTTAR PRADESH
The most populous state in India recorded 36,605 cases yesterday, the second-highest in the country after Maharashtra, with 196 deaths. The state has reported a total of 1,013,370 cases and 10,737 deaths since the pandemic started.
KERALA
The southern state posted 28,447 new cases and 27 new deaths yesterday. It has so far reported 1,350,502 cases in total, with 5,056 deaths.
KARNATAKA
The south-western state reported 26,962 cases and 190 deaths yesterday. It currently ranks No. 3 among India's worst-hit states with 1,274,959 total confirmed cases and 14,075 deaths.
TAMIL NADU
With 1,051,487 confirmed cases and 13,396 deaths, Tamil Nadu is among the worst-hit states in South India. The state posted 13,776 new cases and 78 new deaths yesterday.
SOURCE: CORONA INDIA TRACKER, INDIA'S MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE
The alarming statistics from India came as the World Health Organisation last week said more people were diagnosed with Covid-19 in the previous week than any other since the pandemic began.
India contributed more than 1.4 million infections to that week's global tally of 5.2 million new cases, the WHO report said. The previous global weekly record was set in January with five million cases.
The WHO also warned that new infections are increasing everywhere except Europe, led by cases in Argentina, Turkey and Brazil.
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, BLOOMBERG
