India's coronavirus death toll has passed 200,000 with more than 3,000 fatalities reported in 24 hours for the first time, official data showed.
A total of 201,187 people have now died, 3,293 of them in the past day, according to health ministry data, although many experts suspect that the true toll is higher.
India has now reported 18 million infections, an increase of 360,000 in 24 hours, which is a new world record. This month alone the country has added almost six million new cases.
Bodies of COVID-19 victims lay burning on Tuesday in funeral pyres cramming New Delhi's sidewalks and car parks amid an explosion of new cases, as foreign aid began arriving.
"People are just dying, dying and dying," said Jitender Singh Shanty, who is coordinating more than 100 cremations per day at the site in the east of the city.
"If we get more bodies then we will cremate on the road. There is no more space here," he said, adding: "We had never thought that we would see such horrible scenes."
A man performs last funeral rites of a victim who died from COVID-19 at a cremation ground in New Delhi. Source: AAP
'Those who normally survive also die'
The US, Australia, France, Germany, Canada, the EU and the World Health Organisation have all .
A shipment from the UK, including 100 ventilators and 95 oxygen concentrators, arrived in the capital New Delhi on Tuesday as hospitals starved of life-saving oxygen and beds turned away coronavirus patients.
India's first "Oxygen Express" train pulled into New Delhi, laden with about 70 tonnes of oxygen from an eastern state, but the crisis has not abated in the city of 20 million people at the epicentre of the world's deadliest wave of infections.
"The current wave is extremely dangerous and contagious and the hospitals are overloaded," said Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, adding that a large public area in the capital will be converted into a critical care hospital.
Despite India's status as the "pharmacy of the world", the biggest producer of generic drugs has been unable to meet the demand for antiviral medication such as remdesivir.
Family members of COVID-19 patients hold empty oxygen cylinders for refilling at Narayana Industrial area in New Delhi. Source: AAP
Many doctors say the drug is not essential for the treatment of COVID-19, but hospitals have been prescribing it anyway.
"This government has failed us so much that those who can normally survive also die," said one exhausted man, Vinod Kumar, as he waited in line for medication.
With frustration mounting, relatives of a recently deceased COVID-19 patient assaulted staff with knives at a hospital in the southeast of New Delhi, injuring at least one person, a hospital spokeswoman said.
A video posted on social media showed several people brawling with guards at the same hospital. Delhi High Court has advised local authorities to provide security at hospitals.
The World Health Organization said it was working to deliver 4,000 oxygen concentrators to India, and two US drugmakers have offered support as vaccine demand outstripped supply.
A relative carries 80-year-old Chetan Devi to a car after a New Delhi hospital was unable to admit her for coronavirus-related symptoms on 27 April, 2021. Source: Hindustan Times
India is also negotiating with the United States, which has said. A senior official participating in the talks said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been assured of priority for India.
Supply uncertainty could force Maharashtra, India's hardest-hit state, to postpone inoculations for people aged between 18 and 45, a government official said.
Mounting toll
The US State Department's coordinator for global COVID-19 response, Gayle Smith, warned India's challenge will require a sustained effort: "We all need to understand that we are still at the front end of this. This hasn't peaked yet."
Dr K. Preetham, an administrator at the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre, said patients there were having to share oxygen cylinders because of the oxygen shortage.
New Delhi is in lockdown, as are the southern state of Karnataka and Maharashtra, where the country’s financial capital Mumbai is situated.
An uneven patchwork of restrictions, complicated by local elections and mass gatherings such as the weeks-long Kumbh Mela, or pitcher festival, could trigger COVID-19 breakouts elsewhere.
A COVID-19 patient receiving oxygen support in a vehicle on 27 April, 202, in Gurugram, India. Source: Hindustan Times
Hindu holy men, or Naga Sadhu, along with other pilgrims take the holy dip in the Ganges River during Kumbh Mela in Haridwar, India, Monday, 12 April, 2021. Source: AP
About 20,000 devout Hindus gathered by the Ganges river in the northern city of Haridwar on the last auspicious day of the festival for a bath they believe will wash away their sins.
"We believe Mother Ganga will protect us," said a woman on the riverbank, where people bathed with few signs of physical distancing measures.
India has an official tally of 17.64 million infections, but experts believe the real number runs much higher.
On Tuesday, , leaving a host of high-profile cricketers stuck there after playing in the lucrative Indian Premier League, which attracted criticism for continuing during the crisis.
