we will speak with the pulitzer prize winning armenian-american poet peter balakian. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. india remains the global epicenter for covid-19, reporting a record number of cases for the fifth straight day today with nearly 353,000 new infections. another 2800 deaths were also reported, pushing the total death toll to over 195,000 -- though, the true number is expected to be much higher. hospitals are overwhelmed with oxygen and other supplies running out, forcing health workers to turn away patients. >> i came here to get my grandfather treated. he is suffering from covid-19. they are not letting us in. the guard is saying there is no doctor available here. that there is no doctor near the emergency ward, then where will we go? amy: prime minister narendra modi came under renewed fire this weekend after news that twitter agreed to a request by his government to block critical tweets about his response to the pandemic. meanwhile, several countries, including the u.