Indian Capital’s Grim Battle with 2nd Virus Wave Wreaks Havoc Across City 

MUMBAI - Despair and anguish have gripped India as the desperate search for oxygen, hospital beds and medicine continues unabated, with the country’s health-care system buckling under the deadly second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

In the capital New Delhi, where a more transmissible coronavirus variant has infected entire families, sick family members are desperately seeking medical help for those more severely ill at home or are frantically racing to locate scarce drugs and oxygen cylinders for which a thriving black market has emerged. It’s a city that now depends on family, friends and social media to navigate through its worst-ever health crisis. People are scared to even open windows and doors for fear of catching the virus, and lonely funerals are being held at crematoriums that are working into the night as the death toll climbs relentlessly. 49-year-old Leena Roy, her husband, son and elderly parents all tested positive for COVID-19 last week. As her mother’s condition worsened, they joined the desperate search for a hospital bed. Her doctor finally located one in a small nursing home in a Delhi suburb whose owner he knew.