(ZEROHEDGE) – Asia is on track to report the most new COVID cases in April (adjusted for population) than any other continent as India's "second wave" of COVID-19 is proving even more deadly than its first.
COVID-19 cases are surging around the world, but already, India's "second wave" of COVID-19 is proving even more deadly than its first. After days of reporting record daily tallies, India reported more than 2,000 COVID deaths in a single day, the health ministry said Wednesday. Coronavirus infections also rose by a record, increasing by 295,041 over the last 24 hours, the data showed. Total deaths reached 182,553, which, to be sure, is merely a fraction of the US's 568,483 deaths (per Johns Hopkins data). Though experts suspect that India's numbers are skewed by pervasive undercounting of deaths (while the US and other western countries are suspected of over-counting).
India's buckling health-care system is badly in need of government relief, and so the Indian government is planning to boost supplies of medical oxygen in coming days, according to the country’s Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan. The government is also reportedly considering applications for oxygen imports from overseas suppliers. The decision follows the deaths of nearly 2 dozen patients in a hospital in Maharashtra, one of the most hard-hit areas of the country, which was caused by a leak in an oxygen tank, the Associated Press reported.