Exhaustion and fear for India's frontline doctors in Covid battle

Doctors said they had been traumatised by being forced to choose which patients to save first as they grappled with insufficient supplies of medicine and oxygen

Coronavirus infections have killed at least 165,000 people in the vast South Asian nation -- home to some of the world's most densely populated cities -- since the start of April

Low pay, 24-hour shifts and severe shortages of staff and protective gear have left many doctors on the frontlines of India's brutal pandemic surge near breaking point and fearful for their lives.

Doctor Shekhar Kumar, working with a private hospital in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, said junior staff and final-year medical students sometimes had to work 24-hour shifts.