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Coronavirus pandemic
AsiaSouth Asia

India’s coronavirus outbreak ‘beyond heartbreaking’, World Health Organization chief says

  • Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the WHO has redeployed 2,600 staff members from other programmes in India to help support the effort to fight the disease
  • India ordered its armed forces on Monday to help tackle surging new coronavirus infections that are overwhelming hospitals, as countries around world pledge aid

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World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Photo: Reuters
Reuters

The situation in India, where Covid-19 cases have surged, is “beyond heartbreaking”, and the World Health Organization is sending extra staff and supplies there to help fight the pandemic, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday.

“WHO is doing everything we can, providing critical equipment and supplies, including thousands of oxygen concentrators, prefabricated mobile field hospitals and laboratory supplies,” Tedros told a briefing.

The WHO has redeployed 2,600 staff members from other programmes in India to help support the effort to fight the disease, he said, citing figures provided last Friday.

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India ordered its armed forces on Monday to help tackle surging new coronavirus infections that are overwhelming hospitals, as countries including Britain, Germany and the United States pledged to send urgent medical aid.

04:21

Covid-19 pandemic ‘long way from over’ says WHO, as global infections continue to grow

Covid-19 pandemic ‘long way from over’ says WHO, as global infections continue to grow

“The exponential growth that we have seen in case numbers is really, truly astonishing,” Maria van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead on Covid-19, told the news conference.

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