Former Miss Universe Sushmita Sen arranges oxygen cylinders for hospitals in New Delhi

People across India scrambled for life-saving oxygen supplies on Friday and patients lay dying outside hospitals as the capital recorded the equivalent of one death from COVID-19 every five minutes.

For the second day running, the country's overnight infection total was higher than ever recorded anywhere in the world since the pandemic began last year, at 332,730.

India's second wave has hit with such ferocity that hospitals are running out of oxygen, beds and anti-viral drugs. Many patients have been turned away because there was no space for them, doctors in Delhi said.

Deaths in the past 24 hours also jumped to 2,263, the health ministry said, while officials across northern and western India, including the capital, New Delhi, warned most hospitals were at full capacity and running out of oxygen.

As the country struggles to attend to critical patients and ensure they come out healthy, Bollywood actor Sushmita Sen has joined in to help arrange oxygen cylinders for hospitals that are in dire need of them.

The former Miss Universe took to Twitter and inquired how she can get the tanks transported, only to have met with criticism from a user.

The actor had posted her thoughts as she shared an ANI tweet featuring the CEO of a Delhi hospital breaking down while talking about the shortage of oxygen. She wrote, "This is deeply heartbreaking...oxygen crisis is everywhere. I have managed to organise a few oxygen cylinders for this hospital but have no way to transport them to Delhi from Mumbai...please help me find a way."

The tweep responded to Sushmita's post and asked, "If oxygen crisis is everywhere, why are you sending it to Delhi instead of giving it to a similar hospital in Mumbai?" Sushmita replied, "Because Mumbai still has oxygen cylinders available, that’s how I found it. Delhi needs it, especially these smaller hospitals, so help if you can."