COVID Horror: 20 Critically Ill Patients Die in Delhi's Jaipur Golden Hospital Amid Oxygen Scarcity

New Delhi: Twenty critically ill patients died overnight at Jaipur Golden Hospital in Delhi amid a serious oxygen crisis, officials said on Saturday.

"The oxygen pressure has dipped as we are running out of stock," Dr D K Baluja, the medical director of Jaipur Golden Hospital, told PTI.

He said the hospital has over 200 patients and they had only half-an-hour of oxygen was left at 10:45 am.

It received the last refill of oxygen around midnight, after hours of delay.

"Nobody has promised anything. Everybody is saying we will do our best," the medical director said when asked if the hospital received any help from the government.

Dr Baluja said the hospital has over 200 patients and 80% of them are on oxygen support. Around 35 patients are in the ICU, he said.

Record 3,46,786 Cases, 2,624 Deaths

A record single-day rise of 3,46,786 coronavirus cases pushed India's tally of infection to 1,66,10,481, while active cases crossed the 25-lakh mark, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday.

The death toll rose to 1,89,544 with a record 2,624 more fatalities in a day, the data updated at 8 a.m showed.

With a steady increase, active cases in the country reached 25,52,940 and comprise 15.37% of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has further dropped to 83.49% .

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease rose to 1,38,67,997, while the case fatality rate has dropped to 1.14%, the data stated.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23 last year, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

India crossed the grim milestone of a total of 1.50 crore COVID-19 on April 19 this year.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 27,61,99,222 samples have been tested for COVID-19 till April 23 with 17,53,569 of them being examined on Friday.

The 2,624 new fatalities include 773 from Maharashtra, 348 from Delhi, 219 from Chhattisgarh, 196 from Uttar Pradesh, 142 from Gujarat, 190 from Karnataka, 78 from Tamil Nadu and 75 from Punjab.

A total of 1,89,544 deaths have been reported so far in the country, including 63,252 from Maharashtra, 14,075 from Karnataka, 13,395 from Tamil Nadu, 13,541 from Delhi, 10,825 from West Bengal, 10,737 from Uttar Pradesh, 8,264 from Punjab and 7,579 from Andhra Pradesh.