The United States has promised to send more support to India as the country grapples with an escalating COVID-19 pandemic that has seen the country report world record high cases for four days in a row.

The US, which has reported more deaths from coronavirus than any other country, said it was deeply concerned about the surge in India.

White House spokeswoman said that, ‘We are in active conversations at high levels and plan to quickly deploy additional support to the Government of India and Indian health care workers as they battle this latest severe outbreak’.

The wave of cases has left hospitals running out of critical oxygen supplies and the government has deployed military planes and trains to get oxygen to New Delhi not only from other parts of the country but also overseas.

The number of cases across the country of about 1.3 billion rose overnight by 349,691. India’s Health Ministry stated that for a total of 16.96 million cases. An additional 2,767 people were reported dead from the disease, according to health ministry data, taking the death toll to 192,311.