India's plight draws emergency response

The international community is stepping in with urgent medical aid for India, where a deadly second wave of COVID-19 is sweeping the country and overwhelming hospitals.

To meet the growing demand for oxygen in hospitals, India has reached out to a number of countries to procure containers and oxygen cylinders under an operation dubbed Oxygen Maitri.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin on Monday said at a daily news conference that China is paying great attention to the pandemic situation in India and has extended sincere sympathies in response to the recent deterioration.

China has made clear its position that it stands ready to help India to combat the new round of the pandemic. And both sides are in communication in this regard, Wang said.

In Brussels, the European Commission said it planned to send oxygen and medicine. Its president, Ursula von der Leyen, said the organization was "pooling resources to respond rapidly to India's request for assistance".

Life-saving medical equipment, including hundreds of oxygen concentrators and ventilators, is being sent from the United Kingdom "to support efforts to prevent the tragic loss of life from this terrible virus", British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday.

Saudi Arabia is shipping 80 metric tonnes of liquid oxygen to India, the Chennai-based newspaper The Hindu said.

The Indian Air Force on Saturday brought four cryogenic tanks from Singapore. The tanks are used to store liquefied gases including oxygen.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday told his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval in a phone call that "the United States is working around the clock" to deploy resources and supplies. The US has been criticized for imposing a ban on these exports.

Plans approved

The Indian government has approved plans for more than 500 oxygen generation plants across the country to boost supplies.

In its highest single-day spike in infections, India on Monday reported 352,991 cases over the latest 24-hour period. With a population of 1.3 billion, India has 17.31 million infections and 195,123 deaths, the country's health ministry data showed.

Hospitals are running out of oxygen and supplies, sparking fears that a major humanitarian disaster is underway.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had referred to the resurgence in infections as a toofan－or storm－in a radio address on Sunday. He said the second wave has "shaken the country".

Several cities have ordered curfews, while police have been deployed to enforce social distancing and mask-wearing. Delhi has extended a lockdown by another week.

Experts are putting the worsening situation down to a combination of factors: complacency after the first wave of infections, the mass gatherings of people at political rallies and religious events, and the rise of mutant strains.

Modi is facing a growing backlash as the crisis spirals. His decision to address tens of thousands of people at state election rallies is under fire. He has also been criticized for letting Hindu devotees congregate for the Kumbh Mela festival.

Zhang Wenhong, a Chinese infectious diseases specialist, warned of a larger outbreak in the near future in India. To get through the crisis, India, as Zhang put it, needs to take extremely rigid public health measures and ensure that people comply with them.

The Indian government asked social media platform Twitter to take down dozens of tweets, including some by local lawmakers, which were critical of the government's handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

Twitter has withheld some of the tweets after the legal request by the Indian government, a company spokeswoman told Reuters on Saturday.