Coronavirus | In Lucknow, a desperate search for a hospital bed

Inadequate facilities have left patients and kin with few options amid surging cases

COVID-19 patients in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh continued to struggle to find beds in hospitals while the mounting cases of the disease forced the State government on Friday to declare a weekly shutdown in both rural and urban areas on Sundays. The State recorded 27,426 new cases and 103 deaths in the last 24 hours, with 6,958 cases and 35 deaths in Lucknow alone, as per health department figures. Among those bereaved is physiotherapist Ashish Srivastava, who said he had driven around city hospitals with his 73-year-old father desperate to find a bed but none would take him in, either demanding a COVID-19 report first or citing lack of beds.