‘BODIES WERE EVERYWHERE’

India’s Unfolding COVID Disaster Sets Horrific New World Record: 314,000 New Cases in One Day

The unprecedented surge has the nation’s health-care system dangerously short of hospital beds and oxygen, and tops previous high set in U.S. in January.

India reported more than 314,000 new COVID-19 infections Thursday—the highest number of daily cases confirmed by any country since the pandemic began over a year ago. India’s health ministry said the 314,835 new infections came alongside 2,104 deaths in the past 24 hours. The unprecedented surge in infections has left the nation’s health-care system dangerously short of hospital beds and oxygen. The New Delhi High Court has ordered the government to divert oxygen from factory use to health-care facilities to stop more deaths, writing in a Wednesday ruling: “You can’t have people die because there is no oxygen. Beg, borrow, or steal, it is a national emergency.” A resident in Lucknow, the state capital of the northern Uttar Pradesh state, told the Associated Press that the sight of death has become unavoidable in the city. Shekhar Chakraborty said: “The bodies were everywhere, they were being cremated on sidewalks meant for walking. I have never such a flow of dead bodies in my life.”