ICU beds full as COVID surges in Indian capital, weekend festival a worry

After his 92-year-old grandmother started coughing and her blood oxygen levels plummeted, Varunn Kaushik took her to two top private hospitals in New Delhi on Monday. Neither took her in, even after one of them found her positive for COVID-19. Kaushik said several other hospitals told him and his family on the phone that they did have free beds, but not in the intensive care units (ICU) his grandmother needed. He finally admitted her to a non-ICU COVID bed in a government hospital, 10 hours after leaving home.