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8.48am BST
Molly Blackall has collated for us some of the many responses we are getting from readers in India about the Covid crisis there:
“It’s like we are in the middle of the apocalypse,” says 40-year-old Pia Desai, who lives in New Delhi, at the centre of the coronavirus crisis that has brought India’s healthcare system to its knees.
Related: ‘It’s everywhere you look’: Guardian readers in India on the Covid crisis
8.46am BST
India’s attempts to ramp up vaccinations in the fight against the Covid surge afflicting the nation have got off to a rocky start, report Associated Press. Starting Wednesday, all Indians 18 and older were allowed to register on a government app for vaccinations, but social media were flooded with complaints the app had crashed due to high use, and once it was working again, no appointments were available.
The mass vaccination drive for the nation of nearly 1.4 billion people began in January and has crawled along since. Nearly 10% of people have received one jab, but only around 1.5% have received both required doses. The latest effort to vaccinate those between ages 18 and 44 is expected to face problems, including whether states even have enough supplies.
Why do we need to care? Why is it so urgent right now? I’m sitting in London and I’m hearing from my friends and family in India about how hospitals are at capacity, there are no rooms in ICUs, ambulances are too busy, oxygen supply is less, crematoriums having mass cremations because the volume of deaths is so much. India is my home and India is bleeding.