India has set an unwelcome world record for the number of new coronavirus infections
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For a fourth day in a row, in India, : a further 349,691 cases in the 24 hours to Sunday morning, with another 2,767 lives lost. The capital, Delhi, is one of the worst-hit areas.
Deaths have been steadily rising in India as critical care beds, medicines and oxygen fall short in an unrelenting wave of Covid infections.
The country has so far confirmed more than 186,000 deaths and 16 million cases – three million have been added just in the last two weeks. And it continues to see record single-day spikes, evidence of a curve that is far steeper than the first wave in mid-September last year.
And the devastating effect is evident in the images pouring in from crematoriums across the country – of anguished families waiting for hours to perform last rites, mass cremations as cities run out of space to honour the dead and incessant plumes of smoke from funeral pyres.
Journalists in various cities have challenged official figures, often spending days outside crematoriums to count the dead. Their estimates suggest that deaths in some cities are ten times higher than what is being reported.
