One person is dying of COVID-19 every minute in India as the country is grappled by an unprecedented second wave of the deadly coronavirus.
On Monday, more than 2,000 persons died across the country while nearly 3,00,000 tested positive for COVID-19.
National Health ministry figures showed 295,000 new cases in the last 24 hours, at par with numbers seen in the United States in January, and 2,023 fatalities, bringing the country’s total death toll to 182,553, reported AFP.
Meanwhile, several states have complained of running short of beds and oxygen available for COVID-19 infected patients. Several crematoriums have run out of firewood to keep up with the rising fatality while cemeteries are falling short of space to bury the COVID dead.
The authorities in the national capital have been raising alarm for the past week, flagging the shortage of oxygen in all the hospitals in New Delhi.
More worryingly, the media reports apparently show that the government has been fudging the number of COVID-19 casualties.
At least twenty-two patients died in a hospital in Maharashtra after a disruption to their oxygen supply caused by a leaking tank, Reuters reported. The incident in the city of Nashik, one of India’s worst-hit areas, happened after the tank of gas leaked, said Rajesh Tope, the health minister of Maharashtra, the richest state, where the city is located.
