"I'm feeling really helpless," said Jasvinder Pal Singh, a pharmacy owner in the capital New Delhi.
"People are crying, they ask me for medication, and I'm saying 'no, no and no'."
India's health ministry data yesterday showed 314,835 new infections in the past 24 hours -- the most of any country since the pandemic began -- as hospitals sent out desperate warnings that patients could die without fresh oxygen supplies.
The current wave has been blamed on a new variant and super-spreader events including the Kumbh Mela, one of the world's biggest religious gatherings, as well as large political rallies.
The dire shortages have also meant boom time for profit gougers, with medications and oxygen being sold at many times their usual prices.