India yesterday reported a global daily record of more than 314,000 new COVID-19 infections, as a grim virus surge in the world’s second-most populous country sends an increasing number of sick people into a fragile healthcare system critically short of hospital beds and oxygen.
The 314,835 infections added in the 24-hour period raised India’s total past 15.93 million cases since the pandemic began. It is the second-highest total in the world next to the US.
India has a population of nearly 1.4 billion people.
Photo: Reuters
Fatalities rose by 2,104 in the period, raising India’s overall death toll to 184,657, the Indian Ministry of Health said.
A large number of hospitals are reporting acute shortages of beds and medicine, and are running dangerously low on oxygen.
The New Delhi High Court on Wednesday ordered the government to divert oxygen from industrial use to hospitals to save people’s lives.
“You can’t have people die because there is no oxygen. Beg, borrow or steal — it is a national emergency,” the judges said, responding to a petition by a New Delhi hospital seeking the court’s intervention.
The government is rushing oxygen tankers to replenish hospital supplies.
Indian Minister of Health Harsh Vardhan yesterday said that “demand and supply are being monitored round the clock.”
He wrote on Twitter that to address the exponential spike in demand, the government has increased the quota of oxygen for the seven worst-hit states.
Lockdowns and strict curbs have brought pain, fear and agony to many people in New Delhi and other cities.
In scenes familiar across the country, ambulances rush from one hospital to another, trying to find an empty bed.
Grieving relatives line up outside crematoriums, where the number of dead bodies has jumped several times.
“I get numerous calls every day from patients desperate for a bed. The demand is far much more than the supply,” said Sanjay Gururaj, a doctor at Bengaluru-based Shanti Hospital and Research Center.
“I try to find beds for patients every day and it’s been incredibly frustrating to not be able to help them. In the last week, three patients of mine have died at home because they were unable to get beds. As a doctor, it’s an awful feeling,” Gururaj said.
Yogesh Dixit, a resident of northern Uttar Pradesh state, earlier this week said that he had to buy two oxygen cylinders at 12,000 rupees (US$160) each, more than twice the normal cost, for his ailing father because the state-run hospital in Lucknow had run out of supplies.
He bought two “because the doctors can ask for another oxygen cylinder at any time,” he said, adding that he had to sell his wife’s jewelry to meet the cost.
The main cremation ground at Lucknow, the state capital, received nearly 200 bodies on Sunday.
“The bodies were everywhere, they were being cremated on sidewalks meant for walking. I have never seen such a flow of dead bodies in my life,” 68-year-old Shekhar Chakraborty said.
In Kanpur, also in Uttar Pradesh, 35 temporary platforms have been set up on Bithoor-Sidhnath Ghat, along the Ganges River, to cremate bodies.
The ministry said that of the country’s total production of 7,500 tonnes of oxygen per day, 6,600 tonnes was being allocated for medical use.
It said that 75 railroad coaches in New Delhi have been turned into hospitals, providing an additional 1,200 beds for COVID-19 patients.
The Times of India said that the previous highest daily case count of 307,581 was reported in the US on Jan. 8.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)