MEDICAL SUPPLIES ARRIVE IN INDIA AS COVID CASES SKYROCKET

India hit record numbers of COVID-19 infections worldwide for the sixth day running on Tuesday as the country and its overstretched health systems started receiving vital medical supplies to deal with the pandemic, Siddharta Kumar reported for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).

A total of 323,144 new cases and 2,771 deaths were registered, Health Ministry data showed, taking the national caseload to 17.6 million cases and the death tally to 197,894. India has been logging over 300,000 cases since Thursday, when it surpassed the previous highest one-day spike of around 300,300 cases in the United States in January.

The country has also been seeing its highest daily number of deaths over the past week.

Several nations have pledged support, with the first shipment of COVID medical supplies - including 100 ventilators and 95 oxygen concentrators - arriving from Britain early on Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry said.

The European Union said it was sending a shipload of medical aid - which includes 78 oxygen concentrators, supplies of anti-viral drugs and hundreds of ventilators. Germany and France were also separately sending medical aid, including oxygen production capabilities and generators.

The first "Oxygen Express" train carrying around 70 tons of the life-saving gas also reached the Indian capital on Tuesday, after which oxygen was disbursed to hospitals that have been sending distress messages in the past week. The oxygen crisis was behind 14 more deaths in four states including Maharashtra, the worst-affected state, on Monday, the Times of India daily reported.

Experts attribute the rapid spread of cases to more infectious variants of the virus and people’s failure to observe safety measures.

The government has come in for severe criticism for allowing state election rallies and a mammoth weeks-long Kumbh festival attended by tens of millions of people that may have proved superspreader events.

On Tuesday, scores of Hindus gathered on the banks of the Ganges river on the last auspicious day of the Kumbh festival for a bath they believe will wash away their sins.

Visuals showed pilgrims not wearing masks and flouting physical distancing measures.

The turnout was, however, far lower compared to the hundreds of thousands on the previous days, following appeals by Hindu religious leaders to curtail participants to “symbolic numbers.”

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