The UN chief announced a state of war over the Covid-19 pandemic as the death toll in India surpassed 300,000 and Japan opened its first mass vaccination centers just two months before the Olympic Games, AFP reports.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged governments to apply wartime logic to dramatic inequalities in responding to the pandemic, warning that the crisis is far from over despite the rapid rollout of vaccinations in wealthy countries.

Fatal outbreaks in India, Brazil, and elsewhere have caused the total death toll to surpass 3.4 million, even as wealthy countries such as the United States, Britain, and Israel have eased restrictions.

Speaking with Guterres at the main annual assembly of the World Health Organization in Geneva, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he wants 10 percent of every country's population to be vaccinated by September.

He also paid tribute to the 115,000 medical workers who have died from Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic. He noted that many doctors felt "frustrated, helpless and unprotected due to the lack of access to personal protective equipment and vaccines.

The number of doses administered at this point would be sufficient to reach all healthcare workers and the elderly, if distributed fairly, added Tedros.