India's PM Modi assesses COVID-19 situation

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a special meeting with top officials on Saturday amid a surge in COVID-19 infections across the country.

Modi reviewed the government response to COVID-19 and discussed ramping up availability of hospital beds, oxygen supply and anti-viral drugs like remdesivir. He insisted on early testing and tracking to reduce mortality.

Modi asked state governments to source medical oxygen from industrial plants, amid shortage of supply across the country. He said the central government will supply 17,092 MT of medical oxygen to states recording a surge in cases.

Modi's high-level meeting followed a record 24,000 cases in Delhi, India's capital, alone on Saturday. Also, India saw on Saturday its eighth record daily increase in the last nine days with 234,692 COVID-19 infections and 1,341 related deaths over the last 24 hours.

Delhi's chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, said that the situation was "grim and worrisome."

"We must ensure our bed availability in government and private hospitals to be on a par with that of November last year, and we will further request the central government to increase COVID beds in central government hospitals as well."

"Delhi's COVID situation is very serious, the fourth peak of the virus is more dangerous than ever. There should be no dearth in the number of beds available," said Kejriwal.

Kejriwal's statement came after desperate appeals across the country for hospital beds and drugs like remdesivir.

Nawab Malik, a minister in the government of Maharashtra, claimed that the central government had asked 16 companies to not supply the critical drug to the state. India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) refuted the claim. 

Several states in the country such as Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka have imposed curfews and partial lockdowns to prevent the further spread of the deadly virus. Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, has ordered a one-day lockdown for Sunday.

Experts say the harrowing trend of rising COVID-19 infections can be traced back to two factors — extremely virulent mutations of the original virus, and the country's lax approach to restrictions on daily life to slow the spread of infection.

'Spreader' events and rallies

The Modi government has come under fire for holding election rallies and allowing a major Hindu festival, the Kumbh mela, amid the pandemic.

Social media users reacted with outrage on Saturday when it was reported that COVID-19 patients were allowed to vote in the ongoing elections in the state of West Bengal.

Meanwhile, PM Modi appealed to devotees at the Kumbh Mela to keep the festival "symbolic." 

The mayor of Mumbai, India's financial capital, said that those returning to the city from the Kumbh will have to quarantine in hotels.

The Kumbh Mela religious festival in the northern city of Haridwar has already attracted nearly 5 million largely non-mask wearing Hindu pilgrims to the banks of the Ganges River this week.

Festival organizer Siddharth Chakrapani told AFP news agency that "our faith is the biggest thing for us. It is because of that strong belief that so many people have come here to take a dip in Ganga. They believe that Maa (mother) Ganga will save them from this pandemic."

Officials in Haridwar said that on Monday and Tuesday alone they detected nearly 2,000 infections among festival goers.

India is also struggling with vaccine shortages and has administered just 114 million jabs so far for a population of over 1.3 billion.