NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s coronavirus cases have climbed again, prompting the army to open up its hospitals in a desperate bid to control a massive humanitarian crisis created by an acute shortage of beds, medicines and oxygen. With 386,452 new cases, India now has reported more than 18.7 million since the pandemic began. Battling to find hospital beds, distraught people are flooding social media and messaging apps with heartbreaking pleas for oxygen, medicines and room in intensive care units. India’s army chief met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday and agreed to open military hospitals to civilians. In the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, a school teachers’ organization said that more than 550 members have died after they were infected while helping conduct local elections.
