South Asia: Urgent action needed to prevent further human catastrophe
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Kuala Lumpur/Kathmandu/Delhi/Geneva, 5 May 2021 – Urgent international support is needed to prevent a worsening human catastrophe in countries across South Asia as India’s total COVID-19 infections soar past 20 million.
In Nepal, many hospitals are full and overflowing with COVID-19 patients. Southern towns near the Indian border are unable to cope with the growing number of people needing medical treatment. Nepal is recording 57 times more cases than this time last month.
South Asian countries, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan have all experienced recent record death rates due to COVID-19. Hospitals and intensive care departments remain full or close to capacity in many areas across Bangladesh and Pakistan.
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Afghanistan: 13 million lack food as drought crisis bites
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20 Apr 2021
Kuala Lumpur, Kabul, Geneva, 20 April 2021 – The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) says urgent action is needed to avert a deepening crisis in Afghanistan as one third of the country’s population is going without adequate food due to a worsening drought crisis.
The drought and food crisis is one of the worst suffered in Afghanistan in recent decades, as 13.1 million people are grappling with food shortages according to the latest food insecurity analysis.
This acute food security crisis compounds social and economic hardships already faced by millions of people in Afghanistan due to the COVID-19 pandemic and years of conflict.
Record COVID surge crashes into South Asia
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Kuala Lumpur/Delhi, 16 April 2021 – A humanitarian calamity is engulfing South Asia as COVID-19 skyrockets across several countries setting new records, with more than 200,000 people infected per day.
South Asia is fast becoming the new global epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic. This deadlier and more infectious new wave is overwhelming hospitals and social systems, heaping more distress on hundreds of millions of people already experiencing poverty and hardship.
On 15 April 2021 India recorded more than 200,700 cases in a day, more than double the country’s previous peak and the highest of any country in the world right now. Bangladesh is recording almost 50 per cent more deaths per day than its previous peak in June 2020. Pakistan’s daily cases are spiking, with the highest ever COVID-19 daily death rate.