Covid pandemic ‘uncovered’ oxygen shortages as WHO condemns ‘abject failure’ to develop global healthcare

‘Covid laid bare, tore away the bandages from, some very, very old wounds,’ WHO expert warns

Relatives of Covid patients wait to get oxygen tanks refilled amid shortages in Bolivia in June 2021 (Fernando Cartagena/AFP via Getty Images)

The coronavirus pandemic has “uncovered” the “abject failure” of the global community to improve healthcare coverage over the past 20 years, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said, amid warnings that poorer countries are still struggling with oxygen supplies.

Despite being two years into the pandemic, health leaders have warned that access to the lifesaving gas is still a major problem in low and middle-income countries.

“Not one month has gone by” without some of these nations experiencing oxygen shortages and related deaths, said Leith Greenslade, the coordinator of the Every Breath Counts Coalition.