WHO asks G7 nations to fund global recovery as India record 20m COVID-19 cases

NEW DELHI:  Coronavirus cases in India reported nearly 20 million Monday, in stark contrast to gradual reopenings in Europe and other wealthier parts of the world where rapid vaccination programmes have supported keep new cases down.

The World Health Organization (WHO) highlighting the inequalities urged the G7 group of wealthy nations to dig deep and fund the international COVID-19 recovery, warning the crisis cannot be resolved globally if they do not intensify.

In India, cases have soared by around eight million since the end of March, with PM Narendra Modi under growing pressure to take decisive action to reverse the surge.

Doctors in the resort state of Goa on India´s western coast described hospitals that are overwhelmed by the spike in cases. The Goa Association of Resident Doctors said in a letter, “There are critical patients who have to be managed on trolleys and floors and kept on ventilators in critical Covid wards.”

Clinics in the capital New Delhi have also sent urgent appeals for help as hospitals overwhelmed. “Oxygen is a basic requirement of a hospital and a consistent supply has not been assured. We are constantly firefighting,” the head of the Madhukar Rainbow Children´s Hospital Dr Dinesh told reporters.

The Indian leader thanked the bloc for “mobilizing quick support for India´s fight against the second wave” as international aid has poured into the country.

The WHO has warned that rich countries in Europe and beyond must step up their funding for vaccines, tests and treatments in poorer nations if the global crisis — which has claimed 3.2 million lives — is to be brought to an end.

“We will only solve the vaccine crisis with the leadership of these countries,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, urging wealthy G7 nations to take decisive action at their summit in June.