Fighting losing battle for COVID-19 beds, tests in India's most populous state

FILE PHOTO: Relatives wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) mourn a man, who died from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), during his funeral at a crematorium in New Delhi, India April 21, 2021. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

LUCKNOW, India (Reuters) - As Sushil Kumar Srivastava's breathlessness worsened, his family bundled the 70-year-old into a car and drove him to a hospital in the capital of India's northern Uttar Pradesh state, where he tested positive for the coronavirus.

After the private hospital turned the retired government official away because it didn't have any vacant beds, his son Ashish brought two oxygen cylinders and drove his father on a hunt for a hospital that could admit him.