BODIES FLOAT DOWN GANGES IN SPIRALLING CRISIS

Scores of bodies are washing up on the banks of the Ganges River as Indians fail to keep pace with the deaths and cremations of around 4,000 people a day from the novel coronavirus.

India currently accounts for one in three of the reported deaths from coronavirus around the world, according to a Reuters tally, and its health system is overwhelmed, despite donations of oxygen cylinders and other medical equipment from around the world. Rural parts of India are running short of wood for traditional Hindu cremations.

Authorities said on Tuesday they were investigating the discovery of scores of bodies found floating down the Ganges in two states.

The seven-day average of daily infections hit a record 390,995 on Tuesday, with 3,876 deaths.