India's Covid-19 crisis hugely concerning: WHO

India's covid-19 crisis, mostly led by new variant detected in the country, remains hugely concerning, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director General, in a briefing said that WHO is concerned about India's situation and has been providing all feasible medical supplies to help the country beat this second wave of deadly virus.

"COVID-19 has already cost more than 3.3 million lives and we're on track for the second year of this pandemic to be far more deadly than the first," Tedros said.

However, it's not only India that has emergency needs, he added. Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Egypt are just some of the countries that are dealing with spikes in cases and hospitalizations.

"In January, I spoke about the potential unfolding of a moral catastrophe. Unfortunately, we are now witnessing this play out. In a handful of rich countries, which bought up the majority of the vaccine supply, lower risk groups are now being vaccinated," he said.

"I understand why some countries want to vaccinate their children and adolescents, but right now I urge them to reconsider and to instead donate vaccines to COVAX," WHO said.

"Because in low and lower-middle income countries, vaccine supply has not been enough to even immunize health and care workers, and hospitals are being inundated with people that need lifesaving care urgently. At present, only 0.3 per cent of vaccine supply is going to low-income countries," he added.