India records 314,835 new cases of COVID-19 in single day

India has smashed a global history of daily coronavirus cases, showing a grim 314,835 new cases in the last 24 hours.

The healthcare system in the world's second-most populous nation is already buckling under firm demand in the pandemic - and now major hospitals say they are going critically short of beds and oxygen.

On Wednesday, the New Delhi High Court directed the Indian government to divert oxygen from industrial areas to clinics to help stem the shortage.

"You can't have somebody die because there is no oxygen," said the judges. "Beg, borrow or steal, it is a national emergency."

More than 15.9 million people have tested positive for COVID-19 in India, which puts the country at 1.4 billion, next only to the United States.A total of 184,657 people have died, including another 2,104 people on Thursday.

In Bengaluru, a local doctor said he takes "many" calls every day from people who are "great" for a hospital bed.

"I try to find a place for patients every day, and it's been incredibly tiring to not be able to help them," said Dr Sanjay Gururaj, who works at the Shanti Hospital and Research Centre.

"In the last week, three patients of mine have died because they were not able to get beds. As a doctor, it's an awful feeling."

Meanwhile, in Lucknow, the main crematorium area has been receiving bodies in enormous numbers: nearly 200 arrived on Sunday.

"The bodies were throughout, they were being cremated on paths meant for walking," said 68-year-old Shekhar Chakraborty.

"I never have such a flow of dead bodies in my life."