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Oxygen accident in a hospital in the west Indian city of Nashik
Photo: ANI / REUTERS
In the metropolis of Nashik, northeast of the Indian metropolis of Mumbai, 22 patients died in a clinic due to a leaky oxygen tank.
The leak of the vital gas interrupted the supply of ventilated corona patients in the city's Zakir Hussain hospital, an official told the NDTV television station.
What exactly led to the accident is being investigated, said the health minister of Maharashtra state.
The hospital treated around 150 Covid 19 sufferers who were dependent on artificial respiration or medical oxygen, reported NDTV.
Quite a few have been moved to other clinics.
Massive increase in the number of Covid-19 infections in India
The country with a population of 1.3 billion is the worst hit by the pandemic after the United States, with more than 15 million infections recorded.
More than 180,000 people have died in connection with the coronavirus.
The country is currently registering more new infections and deaths per day than ever before in the pandemic: the Ministry of Health reported 295,000 infections and 2,000 deaths related to Covid-19 on Wednesday.
One of the reasons for the increasing numbers is probably a widespread carelessness.
For a long time there were mass events for upcoming regional elections and religious festivals where people do not wear masks and do not keep their distance.
Virus mutations are also likely to play a role.
In social networks, people are increasingly desperate for hospital beds, medical oxygen, drugs and plasma from recovered people.
There are reports from several areas that crematoria are overloaded.
At the same time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had instructed the states to view lockdowns only as a last resort and instead to rely on small-scale containment.
ala / dpa
