In India, the second wave of the novel coronavirus is causing scenes reminiscent of war in the capital, New Delhi, where the healthcare system is on the verge of collapse. Tankers carrying oxygen are escorted by armed guards to hospitals where oxygen supplies in intensive care units are reaching dangerously low levels. The patients being treated are the privileged few, while many others are dying of suffocation, at home or at the gates of hospitals, sometimes after spending days searching for help. Faced with the influx of patients, overworked doctors and nurses are calling for the establishment of field hospitals. International aid is arriving, while columns of smoke rise above makeshift crematoriums and the death toll continues to rise.

Danish Siddiqui / Reuters