Every day, the country is sinking deeper into crisis.
India on Saturday broke a new record for the daily number of deaths from Covid-19.
And the epidemic outbreak in this country has thus skyrocketed the number of cases recorded worldwide over a day, to more than 893,000 cases on Friday, according to an AFP count.
A number never reached so far.
In front of hospitals in the main cities of India, where nearly a million new cases have been identified in three days, the queues of Covid patients and their worried relatives are growing.
In the last 24 hours, 2,624 deaths linked to the disease have been recorded, a new record which brings the total number of deaths officially counted since the start of the pandemic to nearly 190,000 in this country of 1.3 billion d 'inhabitants.
A mutant virus and gatherings
More than 340,000 new cases have also been identified in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of people with the coronavirus to 16.5 million in the country, placing it second after the United States, the most touched the planet.
But experts believe the numbers could actually be higher, and attribute the new wave to a "double mutation" of the virus and mass events, like the Hindu religious festival Khumb Mela which brought together millions of pilgrims.
VIDEO.
B.1.617, the "double mutant" variant which is causing the epidemic to explode in India
In New Delhi, confined until Monday, hospitals sorely lacking in oxygen and drugs are launching daily appeals for help to the government to provide emergency supplies to feed hundreds of patients under respirator.
"I saw three corpses in six minutes," said Ravi Kumar, who managed to get his 80-year-old grandfather admitted to hospital after waiting all night in front.
“Inside, there are no beds, only stretchers with two patients on each,” he adds.
The day before, her grandfather had to leave a private hospital because the oxygen was exhausted.
Europe barricades itself
Several countries are closing their doors to India.
From Sunday, only citizens of German nationality will be able to travel from India to Germany.
Kuwait announced on Saturday the suspension of direct commercial flights to and from India.
Read alsoCovid-19: why India worries the whole world
As for the United States, they advise against travel there, even for people who have been vaccinated, and Canada suspended flights from India and Pakistan for 30 days on Friday.
The detection of the "Indian" variant in Belgium first, then in Switzerland on Saturday, worries in Europe.
If the outbreak recorded this week in Asia is mainly linked to the situation in India, Nepal has also experienced a meteoric increase in the epidemic (+ 242%), with 1,400 new cases daily.
