AFP :
India’s brutal new Covid-19 outbreak set records on Wednesday with more than 2,000 deaths in 24 hours as hospitals in New Delhi ran perilously low on oxygen.
India has been in the grips of the second wave of infections blamed on lax government rules and a new “double mutant” virus variant, adding almost 3.5 million new cases this month alone.
Health ministry data on Wednesday showed a record 2,023 fatalities and 295,000 new cases in 24 hours, among the world’s biggest daily case totals and on a par with numbers seen in the United States during a deadly surge in January.
In an address to the nation on Tuesday night, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the country of 1.3 billion people was “once again fighting a big fight”.
“The situation was under control till a few weeks back, and then this second wave of coronavirus came like a storm,” he added.
There had been hopes that despite its packed cities and poor health care, India had managed to dodge largely unscathed a pandemic that has killed more than three million people around the world.
Recent weeks have seen mass gatherings including millions of Indians attending religious festivals such as Kumbh Mela, political rallies as well as lavish weddings, and cricket matches against England.
According to press reports, production of key coronavirus drugs slowed or even halted at some factories and there were delays inviting bids for oxygen generation plants.
