Highlights
- Australia considers humanitarian support options as COVID-ravaged India 'gasps for oxygen'
- Crematoriums in India are struggling to cope with the number of dead
- India's daily new COVID-19 infection rate reaches 350,000.
The global record case number for the fourth consecutive day has seen hospitals turning away people who are left dying in line, sometimes on the roads outside, waiting to see doctors.
Life-saving oxygen is in short supply leaving family members on their own to ferry patients from one hospital to another in search of treatment, and too often, their efforts end in mourning.
The COVID-19 statistics in the South Asian country are grave, and some charities have resorted to acting independently of the country's collapsing health system.
Gurpreet Singh, president of a Sikh temple in New Delhi, says they've been sourcing oxygen themselves.
Delhi Sikh temple president Gurpreet Singh Source: AP
"We are trying to save the lives of all these people who are not accepted by hospitals - government hospitals also and private hospitals (are) denying to admit them. We are trying to save their health and life," he says.
Countries worldwide are racing to assist India in its fight against COVID-19:
Countries worldwide, including Australia, consider providing humanitarian and medical assistance as the country grapples with a devastating surge in COVID-19 cases.
Hospitals in Delhi have run out of oxygen. Officially, about 2,000 people are dying every day, but experts estimate that the actual number is way higher than the official stats.
Health Minister Greg Hunt has confirmed the federal government's National Security Committee will meet on Tuesday to review measures to send humanitarian aid to India as part of an immediate support package to assist the country's health system, which is on the verge of collapse.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab says the first of nine plane-loads of aid will be arriving in New Delhi on Tuesday.
The United States' top virus expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, says the US is actively looking at ways to boost aid to India.
The lockdown in the capital, New Delhi, has been extended for another week while the Indian government attempts to quell criticism over its handling of the country's pandemic, which has seen more than 16.9 million confirmed cases, behind only the U-S.
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