COVID mayhem: Over 300 bodies cremated every day in Bengaluru

Outside graveyards in cities like Bengaluru, ambulance after ambulance waits in line to cremate the dead. Burial grounds are running out of space in many cities as glowing funeral pyres blaze through the night.

Bengaluru (Karnataka): Bengaluru has been cremating at least 300 bodies of COVID-19 victims for the last four weeks as the state record a surge of infection since the second wave of the pandemic erupts.

Outside graveyards in cities like Bengaluru, ambulance after ambulance waits in line to cremate the dead. Burial grounds are running out of space in many cities as glowing funeral pyres blaze through the night.

In the central city of Bengaluru, crematoriums have added pyres. One has been forced to skip the rituals Hindus believe to release the soul from the cycle of rebirth.

Overwhelmed crematoriums reflect the collapse of India’s already fragile health care system. Hospitals are unbearably full, with two or three patients to a bed in some cases. Officials are racing to add beds, ventilators and more oxygen to help the sick breathe.

Locals, who are residing near the crematoriums claims that the smoke can be seen 24/7. They added that a smoky layer has covered the areas since the city started witnessing the second wave of the pandemic.

India’s surge in coronavirus infections, growing at the fastest pace in the world, has left families and patients pleading for oxygen outside hospitals, the relatives weeping in the street as their loved ones die while waiting for treatment.

The nation of nearly 1.4 billion people set a global record of new daily infections for a 15 straight day Monday.