Record infections overwhelm Indian healthcare system

NEW DELHI－Delhi hospitals issued desperate appeals for oxygen on Friday and 13 COVID-19 patients died in a fire, as India's healthcare system buckles under a new wave of infections.

The surge in cases, blamed on a new virus variant and the government allowing "super spreader" public events to go ahead, saw another 330,000 new infections and 2,000 deaths reported in the past 24 hours.

The latest in a string of fires at hospitals broke out on the outskirts of Mumbai early on Friday morning, a local official said. It has since been put out and the cause was being investigated.

"There were 17 patients inside when a fire broke out in the ICU of Vijay Vallabh Hospital, out of which 13 died and four have been shifted to other facilities," fire department official Morrison Khavari said.

India's healthcare system has long suffered from underfunding and the new COVID-19 outbreak has seen critical shortages in oxygen, drugs and hospital beds, sparking desperate pleas for help.

Earlier this week, 22 patients died at another hospital in the state of Maharashtra when the oxygen supply to their ventilators was disrupted by a leak.

India has recorded more than 4 million infections this month, dashing hopes at the start of the year that it may have seen the worst of the pandemic.

This mistaken belief led the government to lower its guard, allowing most activity to return almost to normal, including weddings and permitting spectators to pack cricket matches.

The vast Kumbh Mela festival, one of the world's biggest religious gatherings, held in the city of Haridwar between January and this week, attracted an estimated 25 million Hindu pilgrims, mostly without masks or social distancing.

Several state elections have seen big campaign rallies including one by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kolkata that drew an estimated crowd of 800,000.

Many parts of the country have now tightened restrictions, with the capital in lockdown and all nonessential services banned in Maharashtra. The northern state of Uttar Pradesh, home to 240 million people, goes into a shutdown this weekend.

The United Arab Emirates on Thursday became the latest country to impose travel restrictions on India, suspending flights on one of the world's busiest air corridors. Canada also halted flights from India as well as Pakistan, which has been badly hit too.

Hospitals in New Delhi have been posting daily desperate appeals for oxygen to the state and national government."SOS－less than an hour's oxygen supplies at Max Smart Hospital & Max Hospital Saket," one of the biggest private hospital chains in India said on Twitter early on Friday morning."Over 700 patients admitted, need immediate assistance."

India has now recorded more than 16 million cases and 187,000 deaths from the coronavirus.

Agencies Via Xinhua