India suffers worst day of pandemic with record number of cases and deaths

Crematoriums in Delhi forced to build makeshift funeral pyres on spare patches of land as Covid death toll surges

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India has suffered its worst day yet of the pandemic, as both new Covid-19 cases and deaths broke previous records and crematoriums in Delhi became so overloaded with bodies that they are being forced to build makeshift funeral pyres on spare patches of land.

On Wednesday morning, India reported 360,960 new cases in the previous 24 hours, the largest single-day increase in the world, taking India's total to nearly 18 million. A further 3,293 deaths, the deadliest day so far, took the death toll to 201,187.