New Delhi hospitals overwhelmed by COVID infections

New Delhi hospitals issue desperate appeals for oxygen on Friday.

A funeral pyre is prepared for a Covid-19 victim in New Delhi on Thursday. Picture: Reuters

New Delhi hospitals issued desperate appeals for oxygen on Friday and 13 COVID-19 patients died in a fire, as India’s healthcare system buckles under a new wave of infections.

The surge in cases saw another 330,000 new infections and 2000 deaths reported in the 24 hours to Friday.

The latest in a string of fires at hospitals broke out on the outskirts of Mumbai early on Friday morning.

Earlier this week, 22 COVID-19 patients died at another hospital in the same state of Maharashtra when the oxygen supply to their ventilators was disrupted by a leak.

The United Arab Emirates became the latest country to impose travel restrictions on India, suspending flights on one of the world’s busiest air corridors.

Canada also halted flights from India as well as Pakistan, which has been badly hit too.

“SOS — less than an hour’s oxygen supplies at Max Smart Hospital & Max Hospital Saket,” one of the biggest private hospital chains in India said on Twitter Friday morning.

At least six hospitals ran out of oxygen supplies in the Indian capital late on Thursday night before deliveries arrived in the early hours.

AFP