Covid 19 coronavirus: India reports global record of 314k new cases

Workers unload empty oxygen cylinders returning from hospitals at a gas supplier facility in Bengaluru, India. Photo / AP

India reported a global record of more than 314,000 new infections today as a grim coronavirus surge in the world's second-most populous country sends more and more sick people into a fragile health care system critically short of hospital beds and oxygen.

The 314,000 infections added in the past 24 hours raise India's total past 15.9 million cases since the pandemic began. It's second to the United States. India has nearly 1.4 billion people.

Fatalities rose by 2,104 in the past 24 hours, raising India's overall death toll to 184,657, the Health Ministry said.

A large number of hospitals are reporting acute shortages of beds and medicine, and are running dangerously low on levels of oxygen.

Hospital staff shift the body of a Covid-19 patient on a stretcher to a waiting ambulance at a specialised Covid-19 hospital in Noida, a suburb of New Delhi. Photo / AP

The New Delhi High Court on Wednesday ordered the government to divert oxygen from industrial use to hospitals to save people's lives. "Beg, borrow or steal, it is a national emergency," the judges said responding to a petition by a New Delhi hospital seeking this intervention.

The government is rushing oxygen tankers to replenish supplies to hospitals.

The Health Ministry said that of the country's total production of 7,500 metric tonnes of oxygen per day, 6,600 metric tonnes were being allocated for medical use.

A health worker takes a nasal swab sample of Mohammad Faris to test for Covid-19 in Srinagar, Indian-controlled Kashmir. Photo / AP

It also said that 75 railroad coaches in the Indian capital have been turned into hospitals providing an additional 1,200 beds for Covid-19 patients.

The Times of India newspaper says that the previous highest daily case count of 307,581 was reported in the US on January 8.