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The south Asian country of India is our first stop today. It's experiencing a new wave of coronavirus infections and it's a big one. India is the second most populated nation on the planet. It's roughly a third the size of the United States but it has four times the number of people, more than 1.3 billion live in India.
Health experts say the country's first wave of coronavirus infections peaked last September, October. At that time, India was reporting about 100,000 positive tests per day. The numbers dipped during the winter but this month they skyrocketed.
India has recorded more than 300,000 new cases each day for most of the last week. That's an international record. In the capital of New Delhi, there's a lockdown and a shortage of oxygen supplies. The gas is used to help people who are critically sick and having trouble breathing but New Delhi doesn't product its own oxygen, so it's asked the country's government to send help which it has promised to provide. Other nations like the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, Singapore and Russia are offering oxygen or other medical supplies. So is Pakistan and that's significant because even though it shares a border with India, the two nations are bitter rivals.
Despite India's spike in coronavirus cases, the country's medical officials are telling people not to panic. A large percentage of those who test positive for COVID have no symptoms. But if people with mild cases rush to hospitals anyway, which some of them have, it puts pressure on medical centers and makes it harder for them to focus on those who are at higher risk from severe cases. One expert says people who have mild or no symptoms should treat themselves at home.
