UNICEF Warns South Asian Children’s Lives at Risk as COVID Ravages Region

GENEVA - The U.N. Children’s Fund is calling for urgent action to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of children in South Asia who are missing out on routine life-saving vaccinations because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

South Asia, home to nearly two billion people, and more than a quarter of the world’s children, is buckling under the strain of a deadly spike in coronavirus infections.   The U.N. Children’s Fund reports one person dies from COVID-19 every 17 seconds.  It warns the sheer scale and speed of this new surge is outstripping the ability of countries to provide life-saving treatment.  It says many fragile health systems are at the point of collapse. UNICEF regional director for South Asia, George Laryea-Adjei, says everything must be done to prevent this from happening.  Speaking on a video link from Katmandu in Nepal, he says children and mothers depend upon these care facilities for survival.