UN Declares ‘War' On COVID

India death toll tops, 300,000; Japan ramps up vaccination

GENEVA (AFP) – The UN on Monday declared the world “at war” against COVID-19, as India's death toll passed 300,000 and Japan opened its first mass vaccination centres.

But just two months ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, the United States on Monday advised its citizens against travelling there.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged governments to apply wartime logic to stark inequalities in the response to the pandemic.

Despite rapidly advancing vaccination rollouts in wealthy parts of the world, the crisis was far from over, he warned.

Unless we act now, we face a situation in which rich countries vaccinate the majority of their people and open their economies, while the virus continues to cause deep suffering by circling and mutating in the poorest countries.

Deadly outbreaks in India, Brazil and elsewhere have pushed the global death toll past 3.4 million people, even as vaccination programs in rich countries such as the United States, Britain and Israel have allowed them to ease restrictions.

India has witnessed horrific scenes in recent weeks with severe shortages of oxygen at hospitals and crematoriums overwhelmed, although the number of new daily infections has fallen in big cities.

But experts say the real numbers of deaths and infections in India – fuelled by a new coronavirus variant and “superspreader” events such as religious festivals – are probably far higher than the official figures.