The COVID-19 situation in India, which has been breaking all records with a deadly second surge, is “beyond heartbreaking”, said the World Health Organisation chief on Monday, 26 April.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters, “WHO is doing everything we can, providing critical equipment and supplies.”
He said, apart from transferring more than 2,600 of its experts from various programmes to work with Indian health officials, the UN body is sending, among other things, "thousands of oxygen concentrators, prefabricated mobile field hospitals and laboratory supplies".
The WHO also said that it had transferred more than 2,600 of its experts from various programmes, including polio and tuberculosis, to work with Indian health authorities to help respond to the pandemic.
On Monday, PM Narendra Modi spoke to US President Joe Biden over a phone call, a day after the Biden administration said it would send raw material for the Covishield vaccine. The AstraZeneca vaccine that was developed by Oxford University is approved for use by the World Health Organization and in India under the brand name Covishield.
Several other European nations like Germany, France and EU countries too assured help to India in fighting the pandemic.
India has been driving the global COVID case load, while recording over 3 lakh cases daily.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)