India’s Covid crisis: Authorities face criticism over local elections held during pandemic

India is in a very different situation to the UK, it’s recorded more than 400,000 daily cases of coronavirus for the first time since infections began surging last month, with almost 4,000 deaths reported in the last 24 hours.

But as hospitals scramble to get enough oxygen along with critical supplies, there’s been widespread criticism of the authorities for allowing last month’s elections to go ahead in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal in the midst of the pandemic – putting many thousands of lives at risk.

We have been hearing from the relatives of teachers  who say they are among hundreds who died after they were made to work in polling stations.