India’s Covid crisis ‘beyond heartbreaking’, WHO says

'This can happen in any country if we let our guard down.'

A relative of a person who died with Covid-19 is consoled by another during cremation in Jammu, India (Channi Anand/AP)

The devastating surge in India’s Covid-19 cases which has overwhelmed the country’s health services is “beyond heartbreaking”, World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said.

His comments at a press briefing in Geneva came as Dr Maria van Kerkhove, of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, described coronavirus rates globally as being in a “fragile situation” as several nations, including the UK, said they were sending help to India.