A year ago, when the COVID-19 pandemic was still in its relative infancy, the head of the World Health Organisation stressed that a global approach would be the only way out of the crisis. "The way forward is solidarity: solidarity at the national level, and solidarity at the global level," WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a media briefing in April 2020. Fast-forward 12 months and the devastating scenes in India, where hospitals have been overwhelmed by a surge of COVID-19 cases and thousands are dying for lack of oxygen, suggest the warnings went unheeded. READ MORE: People wait in queues outside the office of the Chemists Association to demand necessary supply of the anti-viral drug Remdesivir, in Pune, India.(AP)