Hunger created by the measures imposed to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus threatens to add 12,000 victims to the daily death toll in nations that have suffered from food crises prior the pandemic, the international aid group Oxfam said in a press release on Thursday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th July, 2020) Hunger created by the measures imposed to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus threatens to add 12,000 victims to the daily death toll in nations that have suffered from food crises prior the pandemic, the international aid group Oxfam said in a press release on Thursday.
"COVID-19 is the last straw for millions of people already struggling with the impacts of conflict, climate change, inequality and a broken food system that has impoverished millions of food producers and workers," Oxfam Interim Executive Director Chema Vera said in the release.
Oxfam has examined the world's ten worst hunger hotspots, including Venezuela, South Sudan and Yemen, where the food crisis is getting worse as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the release said.
The aid organization has also highlighted the emerging epicenters of hunger - middle income countries such as India, South Africa, and Brazil - where millions of people who were barely managing have tipped over the edge by the pandemic, the release added.
Oxfam said it based its prediction of 12,000 additional deaths from pandemic-related hunger on a World Food Program prediction that crisis level or greater food shortages will hit an additional 121 million people this year.
The estimated daily mortality rate at this level of food insecurity increases to between 0.5 to 1 per 10,000 people or between 6,050 and 12,100 deaths per day, according to the release.
