The United States said it would immediately provide raw materials for one of the Covid-19 vaccines, medical equipment and protective gear to help India respond. France, Britain and Germany also promised rapid support.
The number of cases in India surged by 349,691 in the past 24 hours, the fourth straight day of record peaks. Hospitals in Delhi and across the country are turning away patients after running out of medical oxygen and beds.
"We were confident, our spirits were up after successfully tackling the first wave, but this storm has shaken the nation," Modi said in a radio address.
His government has faced criticism that it let its guard down earlier this year, allowed big religious and political gatherings to take place when India's cases fell to below 10,000 a day and did not plan for boosted healthcare systems.
Hospitals and doctors have put out urgent notices saying they are unable to cope with the rush of patients.
Outside a Sikh temple in Ghaziabad city on the outskirts of Delhi, the street resembled an emergency ward of a hospital, but crammed with cars carrying Covid-19 patients gasping for breath as they were hooked up to hand held oxygen tanks.
Elsewhere, people were arranging stretchers and oxygen cylinders outside hospitals as they desperately pleaded for authorities to take patients in, Reuters photographers said.
"Every day, it the same situation, we are left with two hours of oxygen, we only get assurances from the authorities," one doctor said on television.
Delhi's Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal extended a lockdown in the capital that had been due to end on Monday for a week. Covid-19 is killing one person every four minutes in the city.
DEATHS SOAR
India, a country of 1.3 billion people, has recorded a total of 16.96 million infections and 192,311 coronavirus deaths, after 2,767 more died overnight, health ministry data showed.
In the last month alone, daily cases have gone up eight times and deaths by 10 times. Health experts say the death count is probably far higher.
"Our hearts go out to the Indian people in the midst of the horrific Covid-19 outbreak," U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Twitter.
The United States has faced criticism in India for its export controls on raw materials for vaccines put in place via the Defense Production Act and an associated export embargo in February.
The Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s biggest vaccine maker, this month urged President Joe Biden to lift the block on exports of raw materials that is hampering its ability to ramp up vaccine production.
On Sunday, a White House spokeswoman said the United States would send raw materials required for India to manufacture Covishield, the AstraZeneca vaccine licensed by SII. It would also send therapeutics, rapid diagnostic test kits, ventilators and protective equipment for frontline workers.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her "sympathy on the terrible suffering" that the pandemic had brought to India, her chief spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement. "Germany stands in solidarity with India and is urgently preparing a mission of support."
FEROCIOUS SURGE
Epidemiologists and virologists say more infectious variants of the virus, including an Indian one known as B.1.6.1.7, have fuelled the ferocious surge.
Doctors at New Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences have found that one patient is now infecting up to nine in 10 contacts, compared with up to four last year.
The surge in India is expected to peak in mid-May with the daily count of infections reaching half a million, the Indian Express said, citing an internal government assessment.
The newspaper said V.K. Paul, a Covid-19 task force leader, made the presentation during a meeting with Modi and state chief ministers and said the health infrastructure in heavily populated states is not adequate to cope.
Paul did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
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It's interesting that the USA faced world-wide accusations of poor management of the covid virus by then President Donald Trump.
In 2019, India spent $71 BILLION dollars on it's military. Yet so far, no-one has bothered to ask questions of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as to why he allowed so much spending on weapons and so little preparing his country to face a virus that was always going to have a massive impact on the populous nation.
Could it be the world's media was much more interested in attacking a conservative President, than posing pertinent questions to the leader of the world's 5th most powerful economy?
Covid-19 wasn't discovered until late 2019. Perhaps the 2020 budget might be more relevant?
But India does have terrible health system, setting aside only 4% of their total budget for health - well below most other countries.
Only 50% of its population have access to even the most basic healthcare. And the government promotes Ayurvedic pseudoscience cures. The 'world' is asking questions, but India's is not what most would call a rich, hi-tech society. Expectations aren't exactly high.
The USA, on the other hand, spends more on its health budget than anyone else. It is also one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world. Trump, and many others, constantly boasted they had the virus under control. It was going to 'disappear', if you recall. Advice from epidemiologists was ignored and contradicted. Remember the UV and bleach Trump suggested?! They had all the advantages, equipment, hospitals, etc, and still managed one of the worst responses in the world.
And they spent $721 billion on military in 2019... 10x what India spent in 2019, though they have one third the population.
I could not find any confirmable facts to show spending in 2020. It's hardly likely that India slashed spending that year, so my figures from 2019 are perfectly acceptable. I use facts and try not to spin fantasies such as Trump/Russia collusion.
You may also wish to remember that when any conflict appears in the world, America is usually the first country other nations appeal to for help. Like it or not, America is seen as the 'go to' nation for world security and assistance. India however, is simply stocking it's military to fight neighbouring Pakistan. World vision doesn't advertise starving children in the USA!
You also appear to one of people who want to blame everything on Trump and ignore the glaring fact that EVERY country has struggled to cope with this virus. My initial comments stands as confirmation the media used the virus as a way to attack Donald Trump.