Coronavirus: India hits 200,000 deaths as new cases surge to record highs
- Delhi hospitals are turning away patients because they don’t have beds or oxygen to keep them alive. The city is reporting an average of one death every four minutes
- Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden said the US has begun sending ‘a whole series of help’ to India to combat the coronavirus, including life-saving therapeutics
India reached a grim milestone on Wednesday as its death toll from the coronavirus passed 200,000 and a devastating surge of new infections continued to overwhelm health care systems on the brink of collapse.
The health ministry reported 3,293 daily Covid-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing India’s total fatalities to 201,187. Only the United States and Brazil have reported more casualties. For the past week, more than 2,000 Indians have died every day.
The country also reported 362,757 new infections, a new global record, which raised its overall total past 17.9 million, the second-highest number in the world, behind only the US.
The previous record of 350,000 on Monday capped a five-day streak of recording the largest single-day increases in any country throughout the pandemic.
02:05
India’s Covid-19 patients seek free oxygen at temple as country hits 200,000 coronavirus deaths
India thought it had weathered the worst of the pandemic last year, but the virus is now racing through its population and systems have been unable to handle the surge in cases.
The situation led to an angry backlash in Delhi after authorities ordered a luxury hotel to be converted into a Covid-19 health facility for the exclusive use of high court judges and their families.