An extra 10,000 children per month may die this year from malnutrition due to the Covid-19 crisis, the head of the World Health Organisation warned.

According to Reuters, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a UN Food and Agriculture (FAO) conference that due to the pandemic he expected a 14 per cent rise in cases of severe child malnutrition this year — or 6.7 million more people — mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia.

“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.

“Covid has reminded us that life is fragile, health is precious, and healthy diets are not just for the wealthy, they're a human right,” he said.