India on April 22 reported more than 300,000 coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours, the highest recorded in the world in a single day.
The COVID-19-related deaths also jumped by a record in the South Asian country.
India’s daily surge in cases of 314,835 surpasses the previous highest one-day rise in the world of 297,430 cases posted by the United States in January.
The pandemic situation is critical in India where doctors were advising patients to stay at home while a crematorium in the eastern city of Muzaffarpur said it was being overwhelmed with bodies and grieving families had to wait their turn.
“Right now there are no beds, no oxygen. Everything else is secondary,” Shahid Jameel, director of the Trivedi School of Biosciences at Ashoka University, told Reuters. “The infrastructure is crumbling.”
India’s total cases are now at 15.93 million, while deaths rose by 2,104 to reach a total of 184,657, according to the official data.
Experts say the new “double mutant” variant that originated in India is largely responsible for the spike in cases but many also blame the politicians and people who had let their guard down over the past weeks.