Fifty-two passengers on flight from Delhi to Hong Kong test positive for Covid – despite negative result pre-flight

Rashida Fathima, who on on the flight with her husband and two children, told the from her hospital bed she believes she was infected on the plane - despite wearing a face mask for the majority of the journey.

She has told how some passengers were coughing a lot during the six-hour trip, while others took off their masks to eat.

It comes as:

• UK sends ventilators to India to help overwhelmed hospitals
• Harrowing video shows Covid patients gasping for breath in hospital
• IPL chiefs vow tournament will go ahead despite the crisis
• India threatens to 'hang' officials delaying oxygen supplies
• Cases could hit 500,000 a day as death toll mounts

The director of Nanda Travel, based in Hong Kong, has said they are "shocked"; by the situation.

Poonam Nanda added: "This one flight appears to be an astonishing outlier and we are all confounded by these numbers."

There are several reasons why those on the flight all tested positive after being handed a negative result before take off, according to health experts.

Passengers could have been infected in India after the pre-flight test, or the results may have simply been false-negatives as India continues to be overwhelmed by swelling numbers of cases.

It has also been suggested by scientists that those on board may have caught Covid at a quarantine hotel in Hong Kong, or a particularly infectious strain may have been spread during the flight.

It comes as hospital workers in India grapple with surging case numbers - with desperate Indians turning to Twitter to beg for oxygen as the supplies dwindle.

In recent days, Covid patients have reportedly been dying on the pavement outside hospitals in India - with doctors fearing infections will soon hit 500,000 per day as they hit a record peak for a fifth day on Monday.

One person is dying every four minutes in the capital of New Delhi, which has been particularly badly hit.

Some experts believe the number of cases could be up five times higher than the official cases show.

Hospitals are turning away patients and supplies of oxygen running short.

In response, people are bypassing the conventional lines of communication and turning to Twitter to crowdsource help for oxygen cylinders.

As the country contends with a Covid mutant "tsunami", bodies are being burnt 24-hours a day.

Bodies are being cremated through the night - contrary to Hindu custom which dictates no bodies be burned after sundown - to cope with the backlog.

The hold-up is so severe that families are having to wait hours in 35C heat before they can cremate their loved ones.

Funeral pyres have been sending smoke into the sky across the country non-stop.

The Health Ministry reported another 2,767 deaths in the past 24 hours, pushing India’s fatalities to 192,311.

One gravedigger said people were "dying like animals" as resources run out to hold proper funerals.

India’s Prime Minister Prime Minister Narendra Modi admitted “this storm has shaken the nation”.