Brutal new COVID-19 outbreak hits new record in India as oxygen runs short

India’s brutal new COVID-19 outbreak set records on Wednesday with more than 2,000 deaths in 24 hours, as hospitals in New Delhi ran perilously low on oxygen, AFP reported.

Highlighting the strain on health authorities, 22 patients died in a hospital after an oxygen leak cut off the supply to 60 ventilators for half an hour, officials said in the AFP report.

India has been in the grips of a second wave of infections blamed on lax government rules and a new “double mutant” virus variant, adding almost 3.5 million new cases this month alone.

According to AFP, Health Ministry data on Wednesday showed a record 2,023 fatalities and 295,000 new cases in 24 hours, among the world’s biggest daily case totals and on a par with numbers seen in the United States during a deadly surge in January.

In an address to the nation on Tuesday night, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the country of 1.3 billion people was “once again fighting a big fight.”

“The situation was under control till a few weeks back, and then this second corona wave came like a storm,” he said.