The Head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday said that an additional number of around 10,000 children might lose their lives per month, this year from malnutrition caused due to the COVID-19 induced crisis.

The World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the WHO anticipated 14% rise in cases of severe child malnutrition this year – or 6.7 million more people – mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, reported Reuters.

‘We cannot accept a world where the rich have access to healthy diets while the poor are left behind… the rich can afford to stay home, the poor must go out to work,’ he said while speaking at U.N Food and Agriculture (FAO) conference

The WHO Director-General also said that after the pandemic has left its a devastating effect on the economy, the governments must prepare themselves accordingly and work with the private sector and civil society in order to assist and support the sustainable food systems and terminate subsidies for producers of unhealthy food items.

Adding to this, he stated that if countries expanded the childhood feeding programmes, decreased the marketing of unhealthy food and utilized the fiscal policies to encourage better and healthy choices of food among consumers, millions of innocent lives could have been saved till now.

‘COVID has reminded us that life is fragile, health is precious, and healthy diets are not just for the healthy, they’re a human right,’ he said.

‘The pandemic has caused serious disruptions to essential services, immunization, maternal services, child nutrition, family planning and more,’ he added.

Also Read: India’s Coronavirus Tally Touches 73.7 Lakh; 63,371 Cases In 24 Hours: 10 Points