Covid situation in India ‘beyond heartbreaking,’ says WHO chief

US President Joe Biden promised emergency assistance to Covid-ravaged India in a telephone call yesterday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the two countries said.Biden “pledged America’s steadfast support for the people of India who have been impacted by the recent surge in Covid-19 cases,” the White House said.Modi, according to an Indian statement, “conveyed his heartfelt appreciation for the offer of assistance.”In one point not touched on by the White House, India said that Modi raised with Biden a call to ease intellectual property requirements on Covid vaccines.Such a move would “ensure quick and affordable access to vaccines and medicines for developing countries,” the Indian statement said.Meanwhile the World Health Organisation chief yesterday voiced alarm at India’s record-breaking wave of Covid-19 cases and deaths, saying the organisation was rushing to help address the crisis.“The situation in India is beyond heartbreaking,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.“WHO is doing everything we can, providing critical equipment and supplies,” Tedros said.He said the UN health agency was among other things sending “thousands of oxygen concentrators, prefabricated mobile field hospitals and laboratory supplies.”The WHO also said 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.The Indian government yesterday ordered its armed forces to help tackle surging new coronavirus infections that are overwhelming hospitals.In a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the chief of defence staff general Bipin Rawat said oxygen would be released to hospitals from armed forces reserves and retired medical military personnel would join Covid-19 health facilities.And where possible, military medical infrastructure will be made available to civilians, a government statement said, as new coronavirus infections hit a record peak for a fifth day.“All efforts are being made to overcome challenges thrown up by this wave of Covid-19,” Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Twitter. Modi on Sunday urged all citizens to get vaccinated and to exercise caution amid what he called a “storm” of infections, while hospitals and doctors in some northern states posted urgent notices saying they were unable to cope with the influx.In some of the worst-hit cities, bodies were being burnt in makeshift facilities offering mass cremations.The southern state of Karnataka, home to the tech city of Bengaluru, ordered a 14-day lockdown from today, joining the western industrial state of Maharashtra, where lockdowns run until May 1, although some states were also set to lift lockdown measures this week.The patchy curbs, complicated by local elections and mass festival gatherings, could prompt breakouts elsewhere, as infections rose by 352,991 in the last 24 hours, with crowded hospitals running out of oxygen supplies and beds.Decision on jab imports by states attackedThe government has decided to leave the import of Covid-19 vaccines to state authorities and companies, two officials said, a decision that may slow acquisitions of shots. They said the government would instead aim to support domestic vaccine makers by guaranteeing purchases from them. The government this month paid Indian producers in advance, for the first time, for vaccine doses.Under fire for his uneven handling of the world’s worst Covid-19 surge, Modi has opened vaccinations for all adults from next month but supplies are already running short.After cases began soaring this month, Modi’s government urged Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson to seek permission to sell their shots in India, and he relaxed rules for them. But the sources said New Delhi was now leaving it to India’s states and firms to sign deals with foreign drugmakers while it buys half the output of Indian producers — the Serum Institute, now manufacturing the AstraZeneca vaccine, and Bharat Biotech, the maker of a home-grown shot.