UN secretary-general declares ‘war’ on COVID-19

The UN has declared the world “at war” against COVID-19, as India’s death toll passed 300,000 and Japan opened its first mass vaccination centers.

But just two months ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, the US advised its citizens against traveling there.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged governments to apply wartime logic to stark inequalities in the response to the pandemic, AFP reported.

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.

India has administered close to 200 million vaccine shots, but experts say the program needs to be ramped up significantly to bring the virus under control.

Another Asian country criticized for its slow inoculation rate is Japan, where the first mass vaccination centers opened on Monday.