The World Health Organisation stated that the situation in India, where the Covid 19 cases surged, is “beyond heartbreaking” and ensured all support to help fight the pandemic.
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the media that the organisation was doing everything it can to support India in its fight against the deadly virus. He said that the WHO was providing critical equipment and supplies to India. This included thousands of oxygen concentrators, prefabricated mobile field hospitals and laboratory supplies.
WHO EFFORTS
He said that they have redeployed 2,600 staff members from other programmes in India to help support the effort to fight the disease. India has seen a surge in Covid 19 cases in the last two weeks. Moreover, the country witnessed the shortage of oxygen that had led to the death of many patients. Several countries have extended their support to India in its efforts to fight the pandemic.
GROWTH ASTONISHING
Meanwhile, WHO technical lead on COVID-19 Maria van Kerkhove said the exponential growth in case numbers was really, truly astonishing. “We have seen similar trajectories of increases in transmission in a number of countries. It has not been at the same scale and it has not had the same level of impact of burden on the healthcare system that we have seen in India,” she said.
VACCINE
On the COVAX vaccine sharing facility, run by the GAVI vaccine alliance and the WHO, the WHO said that they provided more than 45 million doses of COVID 19 vaccine to 120 economies. The the Serum Institute of India supplied the majority AstraZeneca vaccine.
On the slowing down of the vaccine exports from India, GAVI CEO Seth Berkley said that they had expected 90 million doses for March and April. “Given the crisis in India now they are used domestically. And we are waiting for when supplies will resume. We are looking at other options at the same time,” he said.
