Covid-19 cases in India hit new record highs

India reported the world's highest daily tally of coronavirus infections for a second day on Friday, surpassing 330,000 new cases in 24 hours.

Deaths over the preceding 24 hours also climbed at their quickest pace on record or by 2,263.

The country's health ministry also warned that most hospitals across northern and western India were full and running out of oxygen for patients.

"It is grim. It is grave [...] there is an extreme shortage of ICU beds," T.S. Singh Deo, health minister of the eastern state of Chhattisgarh, told Reuters.

"We'll need to be very careful in the rural areas. If it spreads there, then it will be out of control."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the government was making a "continuous effort" to increase oxygen supplies and was working on diverting industrial oxygen to hospitals.

"Every state should ensure that no oxygen tanker, whether it is meant for any state, is stopped or gets stranded," he was quoted as saying in a statement.

New Delhi reported more than 26,000 new cases and 306 deaths, or about one fatality every five minutes, the highest rate since the pandemic began.

People losing loved ones in India's capital were turning to makeshift facilities for mass burials and cremations as funeral services were swamped.

Britain, Canada, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates banned flights from India until the situation stabilises.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, chief of the World Health Organization said on Friday that people were dying across the world because they were not being vaccinated, tested or treated.

"The situation in India is a devastating reminder of what the virus can do," he told a virtual briefing in Geneva.