Crematoriums face meltdown as funeral fires light up the skies in India
By Pratap Chakravarty - RFI
AP - Channi Anand
The acrid stench of wood-fire, molten oils and the confused ululation of last rites engulf cremation centers in India where the pandemic is currently claiming three lives every minute. The sub-continent s coronavirus tally surpassed the grim 21-million mile-stone and the death toll reached 238,000 at the end of the first week of May.
Final resting places in the Indian capital, Delhi, are bearing the brunt as the city logged a staggering total of 1.3 million infections and 18,739 Covid deaths on 8 May.
Royal aid being flown to India Saturday
Oxygen supplies part of relief cargo
published : 8 May 2021 at 05:00
61 Oxygen supplies from Their Majesties the King and Queen and other relief items to be donated to Covid-19 patients are loaded on a Royal Thai Airforce s Airbus 340-500 for a humanitarian mission to India. (Royal Thai Air Force Photo)
Life-saving oxygen supplies sponsored by Their Majesties the King and Queen for Covid-19 patients will be flown to India today by the Royal Thai Air Force as that nation s virus catastrophe deepens.
The plane will also carry relief items donated by the Indian Association of Thailand, the India-Thai Chamber of Commerce and the Indian Institute of Technology Alumni Association.
Royal aid being flown to India Saturday
Oxygen supplies part of relief cargo
published : 8 May 2021 at 05:00
26 Oxygen supplies from Their Majesties the King and Queen and other relief items to be donated to Covid-19 patients are loaded on a Royal Thai Airforce s Airbus 340-500 for a humanitarian mission to India. (Royal Thai Air Force Photo)
Life-saving oxygen supplies sponsored by Their Majesties the King and Queen for Covid-19 patients will be flown to India today by the Royal Thai Air Force as that nation s virus catastrophe deepens.
The plane will also carry relief items donated by the Indian Association of Thailand, the India-Thai Chamber of Commerce and the Indian Institute of Technology Alumni Association.
Reuters Reuters
7 May, 2021, 11:15 am
Mortuary workers load the body of a person, who died from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), to an ambulance for cremation, at a hospital in New Delhi, India May 5, 2021. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
Hopes that India’s rampaging second wave of COVID-19 is peaking were set back on Thursday as record daily infections and deaths were reported and as the virus spread from cities to villages that were poorly equipped to cope.
Government modelling had forecast a peak by Wednesday in infections that have overwhelmed the healthcare system, with hospitals running out of beds and medical oxygen.
A record 412,262 new cases and 3,980 deaths were reported over the past 24 hours, taking total infections past 21 million and the overall death toll to 230,168, Health Ministry data showed.