India sets new COVID world record as oxygen demand jumps seven-fold
06 May 2021
India has seen demand for oxygen jump "seven-fold" as the country set a new world record for daily COVID-19 cases on Thursday, per AP.
By the numbers: India's health ministry reported 412,262 new infections, taking the official tally past 21 million, and 3,980 deaths from the coronavirus in the past 24 hours. The official death toll now stands at 230,168. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher.
The big picture: Hospitals are running critically low on oxygen supplies, having been grappling with a huge wave of COVID-19 infections since last month, driven largely by new virus variants.
- Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said there's enough liquid oxygen in the country, but officials are facing transportation logistics, AP notes. Most oxygen is produced in eastern India, but demand has increased in the nort and west.
- India's Supreme Court on Wednesday gave Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government one day to "submit a plan to supply" hospital in New Delhi with oxygen, as the capital reported receiving only 40% of its daily needs, Al Jazeera reports.
What to watch: The country's vaccine production is "expected to get a boost" with the Biden administration backing an intellectual property protections waiver for COVID-19 doses, per AP.
Go deeper: Foreign aid pours into India as COVID-19 crisis worsens
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.