Many hospitals are scrambling for beds and oxygen as COVID-19 infections surged to a new daily record.
The situation is so bad that at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital in New Delhi, the country's largest facility treating COVID-19 patients, two or three patients were seen sharing single beds in some wards.
Here's a glimpse of the struggle.
A patient suffering from the coronavirus disease gets treatment at the casualty ward in Lok Nayak Jai Prakash hospital, amidst the spread of the disease in New Delhi. Photograph: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters
Patients suffering from the coronavirus disease get treatment at a Delhi hospital. India is witnessing a sharp spike in Covid-19 cases after months of declining numbers. Since early April Covid infection numbers have skyrocketed, reaching record high every day. Photograph: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters
The rapid surge has also brought forward the tale of crumbling health infrastructure in the country. In many places, patients are being treated outside the hospital due to lack of beds or space. Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters
A woman is consoled by her children after her husband died due to the coronavirus disease outside a mortuary of a COVID-19 hospital in New Delhi. Photograph: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters
Patients with breathing problems wear oxygen masks as they wait inside ambulances in a queue to enter a COVID-19 hospital in Ahmedabad. Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters
A frontline worker in personal protective equipment sprays a flammable liquid on a burning funeral pyre of a man who died from the coronavirus disease at a crematorium on the outskirts of Mumbai. Photograph: Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters
Empty oxygen cylinders are being refilled, to be transported to hospitals for Covid-19 patients, amid the rise in Covid-19 cases across the country, in Lucknow. Photograph: Nand Kumar/PTI Photo
A scene outside the COVID-19 OPD at the Government Civil Hospital, in Ahmedabad. Incidents of shortage in oxygen supply, slow testing and non-availability of beds and ventillators have been reported from hospitals across the country. Photograph: PTI Photo
More than one COVID patient seen sharing a single bed at GMC Hospital, in Nagpur. Photograph: ANI Photo
