Thread by @Reuters

From Delhi to the western state of Gujarat and the southern tech city of Bengaluru, India has been overwhelmed by a surge in deaths after it was swept by a second wave of coronavirus infections. Cases early this month topped more than 400,000 a day reut.rs/3fXJUnM 1/6

With overburdened hospitals and scant supplies of oxygen and drugs for an already creaky healthcare system, the numbers of cremations and burials reported by several major cities are far larger than official death tolls, @Reuters finds 2/6

In Surat, Gujarat, a city of six million people and is best known for its diamond-polishing industry, at least seven crematoriums and graveyards saw a more than threefold rise in the number of cremations and burials in April versus a year ago 3/6

Nowhere has the crisis been more acute than in New Delhi. Last month, fewer than 20 of its more than 5,000 beds in intensive care units dedicated to treating COVID patients were free.

Patients rushed from hospital to hospital, with some dying on the streets or at home 4/6

Some of Delhi’s largest crematoriums had to clear space in car parks to burn the dead.

A patch of adjacent waste ground was cleared at the Seemapuri crematorium. Cremations built up an invisible wall of heat that seared those on the roofs of nearby buildings 5/6

A lack of firewood: India’s Hindu majority cremates its dead and the huge numbers of deaths mean bodies stacking up.

A local lockdown to rein in the pandemic has brought a shortage of workers to cut trees. Read more about the devastating second wave reut.rs/3fXJUnM 6/6