This is the fourth straight day India has recorded over 3,000 deaths as the second wave of the pandemic carries on unabated and keeps setting grim new records. Altogether 215,542 people have died from Covid-19.
India became the first country to cross 400,000 daily cases on Saturday.
Health care systems are overwhelmed and a shortage of medical oxygen has emerged as the most serious challenge.
Thirty-four patients died for alleged want of oxygen in hospitals in the national capital New Delhi and the states of Andhra Pradesh and Haryana on Saturday, the Times of India reported.
Thirty-one more with Covid-19-like symptoms and “breathing difficulties” died in a hospital Uttar Pradesh state, the report cited authorities as saying.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting on Sunday to review the measures being taken to tackle the unprecedented surge.
Relief material from Germany is unloaded an aircraft of the air force. Photo: Thorsten Weber/Bundeswehr/dpa.
Vaccination
India opened a new round of its vaccinations on Saturday, extending coverage for all those above 18 years, but only a handful of states were able to deliver the jabs owing to a shortage of vaccines.
Only 86,000 newly eligible people took the shot, the government said.
International aid is arriving from the United States, Germany and other countries which have promised support to India as its health care system is pushed to the brink and beyond.
