India reported a global record of more than 314,000 new infections Thursday as a grim coronavirus surge in the world's second-most populous country sends more and more sick people into a fragile health care system critically short of hospital beds and oxygen.
The 314,000 infections added in the past 24 hours raise India's total past 15.9 million cases since the pandemic began. It's second to the United States. India has nearly 1.4 billion people.
Fatalities rose by 2,104 in the past 24 hours, raising India's overall death toll to 184,657, the Health Ministry said.
Hospital staff shift the body of a COVID-19 patient on a stretcher to a waiting ambulance at a specialized COVID-19 hospital in Noida, a suburb of New Delhi, India, Wednesday, April 21, 2021. (AP PhotoAltaf Qadri)
A large number of hospitals are reporting acute shortages of beds and medicine and are running on dangerously low levels of oxygen.
The New Delhi High Court on Wednesday ordered the government to divert oxygen from industrial use to hospitals to save people’s lives. "Beg, borrow or steal, it is a national emergency,” the judges said responding to a petition by a New Delhi hospital seeking its intervention.
The government is rushing oxygen tankers to replenish supplies to hospitals.
The Health Ministry said that of the country’s total production of 7,500 metric tonnes (8,300 U.S. tons) of oxygen per day, 6,600 metric tonnes (7,275 U.S. tons) were being allocated for medical use.
It also said that 75 railroad coaches in the Indian capital have been turned into hospitals providing an additional beds 1,200 for COVID-19 patients.
The Times of India newspaper says that the previous highest daily case count of 307,581 was reported in the U.S. on Jan. 8.