India recorded its deadliest day of the coronavirus pandemic yet with 3,689 deaths in the last 24 hours and one more state going into lockdown as the nation’s creaky healthcare system is unable to cope with the massive caseload.

Sunday was the fourth straight day India recorded more than 3,000 deaths as the second wave of the pandemic carries on unabated and keeps setting grim new records. Altogether 215,542 people have died from COVID-19 in the country.

The number of cases surged to 19.5 million with 392,488 new infections, government data showed. India became the first country to cross 400,000 daily cases on Saturday.

Healthcare systems are overwhelmed and a shortage of medical oxygen has emerged as the most serious challenge.

Thirty-four patients died because of oxygen shortages in hospitals in the capital New Delhi and the states of Andhra Pradesh and Haryana on Saturday, the Times of India reported.

Thirty-one more with COVID-19-like symptoms and “breathing difficulties” died in a hospital in Uttar Pradesh state, the report cited authorities as saying.

Nearly 10 Indian states and union territories have imposed some form of restrictions, even as the federal government remains reluctant to impose a national lockdown.

 

Source:Aljazeera