India's daily Covid caseload doubles in 10 days to 200,000; hospital beds, oxygen fall short

INDIA added a record 200,000 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, official data showed Thursday (15), as the country's huge second wave accelerates.

The number of new infections in a day has more than doubled since early April, with a cumulative total 14.1 million cases.

The financial hub of Mumbai entered a lockdown, as many hospitals treating coronavirus patients reported severe shortages of beds and oxygen supplies.

India also added 1,038 deaths in the past day, taking the total to almost 175,000, the health ministry data showed, although on a per capita basis India is far behind many other countries.

This week, it overtook Brazil to become the country with the second-highest number of Covid-19 cases -- experts have blamed complacency about the virus and frustration for the surge.

Hospitals and doctors in Maharashtra as well other regions including Gujarat and Delhi in the north reported chaotic scenes as healthcare facilities were overwhelmed with a surge in admissions of Covid-19 patients.

'Chaotic situation'

"The situation is horrible. We are a 900-bed hospital, but there are about 60 patients waiting and we don't have space for them," said Avinash Gawande, an official at the government medical college and hospital in Nagpur, a commercial hub in Maharashtra.

Hospitals in other places including Gujarat, prime minister Narendra Modi's home state, reported oxygen shortages. "If such conditions persist, the death toll will rise," the head of a medical body in Ahmedabad wrote in a letter to the Gujarat state chief minister.

India's government said the country was producing oxygen at its full capacity everyday for the last two days and it had boosted output.

"Along with the ramped up production of the oxygen manufacturing units and the surplus stocks available, the present availability of oxygen is sufficient," the health ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims still thronged to a religious festival in the north of the country on Wednesday (14), stoking fears of a new surge in Covid-19 cases in the region.

In capital Delhi, too, daily Covid-19 cases are hitting new records, with doctors warning the surge could be deadlier than in 2020.

"This virus is more infectious and virulent .... We have 35-year olds with pneumonia in intensive care, which was not happening last year," said Dhiren Gupta, a paediatrician at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi.