India sets world record for coronavirus infections third day in a row
No respite in site for rising superpower
YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY/CNN) - According to government and scientific tallies, India reported 346,786 new cases of COVID-19 Saturday. This is the third day in a row the country has set a world record for infections during the coronavirus pandemic.
The related death toll for the previous 24 hours hit 2,624 -- also a daily record for India -- for 189,544 total fatalities.
The sky-rocketing COVID-19 infections are devastating India's communities and hospitals. Everything is in short supply -- intensive care unit beds, medicine, oxygen and ventilators. Bodies are piling up in morgues and crematoriums.
Twenty critically ill patients died at a Delhi hospital Friday night after its supply of oxygen was delayed by seven hours, according to Dr. DK Baluja, medical director at the Jaipur Golden Hospital.
"That happened last night. Everything we had was exhausted. The oxygen was not supplied on time. It was supposed to come in at 5 p.m. but it came around midnight. People who were critically ill needed oxygen," said Baluja.
The hospital is currently scrambling to arrange more oxygen but has not received a fresh supply all Saturday morning. "We have only 15-20 minutes of oxygen left now. It may take hours to get another tanker," Baluja told CNN.
Delhi hospitals have been facing a severe oxygen shortage as the number of COVID-19 cases have soared in the national capital in the past two weeks.
On Saturday morning, Moolchand hospital tweeted out an SOS to the Delhi government pleading for oxygen. "Urgent sos help. We have less than 2 hours of oxygen supply @Moolchand_Hosp. We are desperate [...] Have over 135 COVID pts with many on life support," read the tweet.
Delhi recorded 24,331 new cases Friday, including 348 deaths, according to the COVID-19 health bulletin issued by the Delhi government.
Countrywide, India has now recorded more than 16.6 million cases since the start of the pandemic, a CNN tally of figures from the Indian Ministry of Health reveals.
Saturday's tally of new infections represents the highest number of cases recorded in a single day anywhere in the world. Before India's three-day run of record infections, the global highest in a day was the 300,310 cases recorded in the US on January 2, according to a CNN tally of figures from John Hopkins University.
India's population is roughly four times that of the US, and its daily cases still fall behind the US when adjusted for population size (in cases per million people).
"We're going through pretty much the worst possible phase of the pandemic here," Chandrika Bahadur, chair of the Lancet Commission on COVID-19 India Taskforce, said on Wednesday.
