A surge in cases has devastated the country’s big cities is reaching rural areas.
(Picture: AP)Londoners have told of their desperate attempts to help loved ones in India as daily Covid infections and deaths again hit record levels.
Coronavirus cases passed 18 million with 379,257 new infections in the past 24 hours — the highest daily figure of any country in the pandemic.
It was also India’s deadliest day of the pandemic with 3,645 new fatalities.
The virus has devastated the country’s big cities and is reaching rural areas.
It is now spreading at a rapid rate in West Bengal as residents vote in the final phase of elections.
Thousands were still attending rallies earlier this month and experts fear it could be the next epicentre. The state recorded more than 17,000 cases yesterday — a new high.
Dr Rohit Dasgupta, from Newham, went to Kolkata in West Bengal to visit his elderly parents on April 5 after his mother was admitted to hospital with a heart condition.
But he and his sister were forced to get an early flight back this week amid the deadly second wave and are now in quarantine.
He said: “It’s a scary situation. I feel like I have left my friends and family in the trenches. I’m extremely worried about my parents but it is not possible to bring them over here. We are doing what we can to help them from the UK.”
Communities in London have launched fundraisers to buy oxygen concentrators, as well as gathering to pray for relatives and friends.
Turkey will enter its first full lockdown of the pandemic on Thursday in order to curb a surge in infections and deaths.
The country had been seen as a success story for its early combative action against Covid and was praised by the World Health Organisation. But one year on it is among the countries worst affected and saw the highest infection rate in Europe with more than 60,000 new cases a day.
