DELUGED

There’s So Much COVID in India, Patients Have to Share Beds

Case counts are up to 200,000 a day, and hospitals can’t cope.

A photo of two men on oxygen forced to share a hospital bed illustrates the depth of India’s coronavirus crisis. The picture was taken at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital in New Delhi, where staff say they are overwhelmed by the deluge of COVID-19 patients. Daily infections are up to 200,000 a day after India lifted most of its restrictions just as more contagious variants began spreading. “People are not following the COVID guidelines,” hospital medical director Suresh Kumar told Reuters. “They are just careless.” Lok Nayak has set aside 300 beds for COVID treatment but with 158 patients being admitted in a single day, some are having to double up and the dead are stacking up outside the ward.