India COVID: As deaths soar, Delhi makes funeral pyres in parks

New Delhi: For India, yesterday was the worst day of the pandemic in terms of both fresh COVID cases and related deaths, which forced Delhi authorities to build makeshift funeral pyres in public parks.

The country reported 3, 79,257 fresh coronavirus infections and 3,645 deaths, taking the total tally to 1.83 crore cases. Over 2.04 lakh people have died in the country so far due to the deadly virus. The number of active cases has crossed the 30-lakh mark.

This is the eighth consecutive day India has recorded more than 3 lakh cases.

As the nation is crumbling under a devastating COVID "tsunami", shortage of hospital beds, medical oxygen and crucial anti-viral drugs are adding to the difficulties of the covid patients.

However, as the third phase of the Covid-19 vaccination drive begins on May 1, over 1.3 crore people applied on CoWIN - the government's registration website for Covid vaccination on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Two flights from Russia with medical equipment, including oxygen concentrators and ventilators have reached India earlier this morning.

"The Russian Federation decided to send humanitarian assistance to India in the spirit of the special and privileged strategic partnership between our two countries as well as in the context of our anti-COVID19 cooperation," says Nikolay Kudashev, the Ambassador of Russia to India, according to ANI.

The US is also sending supplies worth more than $100 million to India to help it fight a surge of COVID-19 cases, the White House said in a statement on Wednesday, as reported by Reuters. The supplies include 1,000 oxygen cylinders, 15 million N95 masks and 1 million rapid diagnostic tests.

In another tweet on Wednesday, China's Ambassador to India Sun Weidong said: "Chinese medical suppliers are working overtime on orders from India, at least 25000 orders for oxygen concentrators in recent days. Cargo planes are under the plan for medical supplies. Chinese customs will facilitate the relevant process."

Globally, the coronavirus has infected more than 14.92 crore people and killed over 31.46 lakh since the pandemic broke out in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University.