India posts record rise in infections
NEW DELHI: India’s coronavirus deaths rose by a record 3780 in 24 hours, a day after it became the second country, after the United States, to cross the grim milestone of 20 million infections.
Daily infections rose by 382,315 yesterday, health ministry data showed. Government modelling had pointed to a peak by yesterday, a few days earlier than thought, since the virus has spread faster than expected.
Hospitals have run out of beds and oxygen and morgues and crematoriums are overflowing.
Many people have died in ambulances and car parks, waiting for a bed or oxygen.
Two ‘‘oxygen express’’ trains reached the capital Delhi yesterday carrying desperately needed liquid oxygen, Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal said on Twitter.
More than 25 trains have so far delivered oxygen to different parts of India.
India’s Government says there are enough oxygen supplies but distribution has been hindered by transport problems.
A twojudge bench of the Delhi High Court has been holding almost daily video conferences to hear petitions from hospitals seeking oxygen and invoking India’s constitutional right to protection of life.
India’s surge in infections has coincided with a dramatic drop in vaccinations due to supply and delivery problems.
At least three states, including Maharashtra, home to the commercial capital of Mumbai, have reported a scarcity of vaccines has shut down some inoculation centres.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Government has been widely criticised for not acting sooner to suppress the second wave of the virus. Religious festivals and political rallies have attracted tens of thousands of people in superspreader events.
‘‘We need a government. Desperately. And we don’t have one. We are running out of air. We are dying,’’ Indian author Arundhati Roy wrote in an opinion piece published on Tuesday calling for Modi to step down.
‘‘This is a crisis of your making. You cannot solve it. You can only make it worse . . . So please go. It is the most responsible thing for you to do. You have forfeited the moral right to be our prime minister.’’
India’s opposition has called for a nationwide lockdown, but the Government is reluctant to impose a shutdown for fear of the economic fallout, although several states have imposed social curbs.
India’s central bank asked banks yesterday to let certain borrowers have more time to repay loans as the surge in infections impacts a nascent economic revival.
India has an estimated 3.45 million active cases, but medical experts say the actual numbers of dead and infected could be five to 10 times higher. The country added 10 million cases in just over four months, after taking more than 10 months to reach the first 10 million.
Daily testing in India has fallen sharply to 1.5 million, staterun Indian Council of Medical Research said yesterday. It hit a peak of 1.95 million on Saturday.
Cricket officials suspended the hugely popular, moneyspinning Indian Premier League on Tuesday, as the pandemic spirals out of control.
Eight Asiatic lions at an Indian zoo in the southern state of Hyderabad have contracted the coronavirus, the Government said yesterday, adding that there was no evidence animals could transmit the disease to humans.