Indian coronavirus cases surge as health system staggers – Reuters India

Indian coronavirus cases surge as health system staggers – Reuters India

India reported the world's highest daily tally of coronavirus cases for a second day on Friday, surpassing 330,000 new cases, as it struggles with a health system overwhelmed by patients and plagued by accidents.Deaths in the past 24 hours also jumped to a record 2,263, the health ministry said, while officials across northern and western India, including the capital, New Delhi, warned most hospitals were full and running out of oxygen.The surge in cases came as a fire in a hospital in a suburb of Mumbai treating COVID-19 patients killed 13 people on Friday, the latest accident to hit a facility crowded with people infected with the coronavirus.On Wednesday, 22 COVID-19 patients died at a public hospital in Maharashtra state when their oxygen supply ran out due to a leaking tank, while at least nine coronavirus patients died in a hospital fire in Mumbai last month."It is grim. It is grave ... there is an extreme shortage of ICU beds," T.S. Singh Deo, health minister of the eastern state of Chhattisgarh told Reuters."We'll need to be very careful in the rural areas. If it spreads there, then it will be out of control," Deo said.Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose government