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What you need to know:India’s Covid Crisis Threatens the World’s Pandemic Recovery
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Bodies Pile Up at India Crematoriums Overwhelmed by Virus Surge

  • India has reported record high infection numbers last week
  • Death toll has hit more than four times the average in January
Workers wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) next to cremation furnaces at the Nigambodh Ghat cremation ground in New Delhi in 2020.
Workers wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) next to cremation furnaces at the Nigambodh Ghat cremation ground in New Delhi in 2020.Photographer: Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images

India’s crematoriums and burial grounds are working overtime to cope with the surging number of deaths from the country’s escalating coronavirus outbreak.

India is now the world’s second worst-hit nation, having overtaken Brazil once again Monday with a sharp jump up in daily new infections over the last 10 days for a grand total of nearly 13.7 million cases. On Tuesday the country reported 161,736 new cases and 879 deaths -- more than four times the daily average in January.