India has reported 314,835 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours. This is the highest number of infections recorded in a single day in any country since the start of the pandemic. A worrying situation, all the more so as some hospitals in the country are facing an oxygen shortage.
India hits world record for new Covid-19 cases in 24 hours
With more than 15.6 million cases recorded since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, India is the second most affected country in terms of number of cases after the United States. This Thursday, April 22, 2021, the Ministry of Health reported 314,835 new contaminations in 24 hours, a world record. In total, more than a million cases have been recorded in the past four days.
This exponential recrudescence is notably attributed to a ” double mutation Of the virus and the maintenance of certain events and mass gatherings which have favored contamination such as the Hindu festival Khumb Mela which has drained millions of devotees since January.
It is in this context that Prime Minister Narendra Modi intervened for the first time on television since the explosion of figures. He thus delivered that India delivered ” once again a big battle “And asked his compatriots to act more against the coronavirus as this second epidemic wave hits the country” like a hurricane “.
Oxygen shortage in hospitals
This impressive increase in the number of new cases of Covid-19 highlights the dilapidation of the Indian health system. Especially since the country is facing a slowdown in the production of treatments against Covid-19 in some factories as well as a shortage of oxygen in some hospitals.
On Twitter, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Tuesday that some hospitals in the megalopolis had “ more than a few hours of oxygen ” reserved. Supply trucks arrived just in time at several hospitals in the early hours of Wednesday, but oxygen supplies remain limited. In the western Indian state of Maharashtra, at least 24 Covid-19 patients died on Wednesday when the oxygen supply to their ventilators ran out due to a leak.
This is why several hospitals and clinics in the capital have launched a desperate appeal to the central government to urgently provide oxygen reserves to feed hundreds of patients on ventilators. In the meantime, the local press reports that families of distraught patients are getting supplies of drugs and oxygen at exorbitant prices on the black market and that many appeals for help are flooding social networks.
