Topline
In India, which is averaging more than 2,000 Covid-related fatalities and 300,000 new infections per day, understaffed hospitals are running out of beds for patients and pleading with government authorities for desperately-needed medical supplies, while crematoriums and graveyards are being overwhelmed.
Undertakers wearing protective suits carry a body next to a burning funeral pyre of a person who ... [+]
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Key Facts
India's Ministry of Health and Welfare reported a staggering 346,786 new cases of Covid-19 on Saturday, shattering the record for most infections by any country in a single 24-hour span.
Fortis Healthcare suspended new admissions to its hospitals in Delhi, according to Reuters, which also reported families have been forced to tend to the ill in the streets and hospital hallways.
Moolchand Hospital in New Delhi tweeted Saturday morning it had "less than 2 hours of oxygen" for 135 Covid patients, many on life support.
According to the New York Times, crematoriums in Kanpur are so backed up that corpses are being burned in the city's parks.
Outside of a crematorium in Lucknow, bodies were being incinerated on sidewalks, according to an Associated Press report.
Health officials in New Delhi have resorted to begging for replenishments of oxygen on social media.
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Rows of burning funeral pyres of deceased Covid-19 patients outside a crematorium in New Delhi on ... [+]
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India is averaging more than 331,000 new infections daily over the past three days.
Getty Images
People wait to receive the COVID-19 vaccine outside a vaccination centre In Mumbai, India on ... [+]
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A Covid patient lies inside a vehicle waiting to be attended to outside a hospital in Ahmedabad.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Funeral biers laid on the sidewalk due to long wait times outside a crematorium in Ghaziabad.
Hindustan Times via Getty Images
Cemetery workers outside a crematorium, in New Delhi.
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Multiple funeral pyres of victims of Covid-19 burn at a mass cremation site in New Delhi.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A woman weeps at Ghazipur cremation ground as last rites are administered to a family member killed ... [+]
Hindustan Times via Getty Images
Crucial Quote:
"I get numerous calls every day from patients desperate for a bed. The demand is far too much than the supply," Dr. Sanjay Gururaj, a doctor at Bengaluru-based Shanti Hospital, told the AP. "In the last week, three patients of mine have died at home because they were unable to get beds. As a doctor, it's an awful feeling."
Key Background:
India was reporting fewer than 15,000 daily infections as recently as early March. However, loosened restrictions that led to the resumption of large, unmasked gatherings contributed to a rapid rise in cases, as has a devastating new variant of the coronavirus. Many experts believe the B.1.617 variant, or the "double mutant," has inflamed the country's catastrophic second wave.
Further Reading:
India Logs Almost 1 Million New Covid Cases In Three Days Amid Deadly Surge (Forbes)
