Daily US Times: A year ago, when the coronavirus pandemic was still in its relative infancy, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) stressed that a global approach would be the only way out of the crisis. India is now suffering the most from the virus, but the Asian nation is not the only global Covid hotspot.
In April 2020, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “The way forward is solidarity: solidarity at the national level, and solidarity at the global level.”
Fast-forward 12 months and the devastating scenes in India, where thousands of patients are dying for lack of oxygen and hospitals have been overwhelmed by a surge of Covid-19 cases, suggest the warnings went unheeded.
India is not the only global Covid-19 hotspot as Turkey entered its first national lockdown on Thursday, an unwelcome step prompted by coronavirus infection rates which are now the highest in Europe.
Iran reported its highest daily Covid infection death toll so far on Monday, with many cities and towns forced into partial lockdown to curb the spread of the virus.
President Hassan Rouhani of Iran has said the country is suffering a fourth wave of infections.
The picture of the coronavirus pandemic across much of South America is also gloomy.
Brazil, with more than 14.5m confirmed Covid-19 cases and nearly 400,000 deaths, Johns Hopkins University data shows, continues to have the highest daily rate of Covid-19 deaths per million in the world.
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