A York man whose family in India have all had Covid says it is now the world's turn 'to help India'.

Mahendra Verma, a retired University of York linguistics teacher in his 80s, said earlier in the pandemic India had launched the 'Vaccine Maitri' (Vaccine Friendship) initiative to supply made-in-India vaccines to low-income and developing countries around the world.

"India donated 200,000 vaccines to protect UN blue helmets to protect against Covid," he said.

But that was before the explosion of cases in recent weeks that has left the country's own health system reeling and hospitals pleading desperately for oxygen, Mr Verma said.

"Now it is our turn to help India," he said.

Mr Verma, who is a trustee of the York Racial Equality Network, said his wife Usha's younger brother Amar, who lives in Uttar Pradesh, died of Covid last year in his seventies.

He said all the rest of his wife's family who lived in India had also had the virus, but were now recovering.

His younger sister Bimla and her family, who also live in Uttar Pradesh, had also all been infected, but were recovering, he said.

He talks to his family in India every day on the phone. "We have been very worried," he said. "More worried because we can't be there to give them any help."

UK newspapers have been filled in recent weeks with heart-rending stories of Indian people trawling hospitals in the desperate search for one that can take in a loved one with Covid. Media reports have also focussed on hospitals' desperate calls for oxygen.

The latest data from Our World In Data show that 22.3million people in India have now had Covid, and more than 242,000 have died.

Mr Verma, who is a member of a Yorkshire-based literary group, said he had been particularly shocked by the death of several Indian literary figures who had talked to his group.

He had been talking to one, the Hindi poet and lyricist Dr Kunwar Bechain, only recently and invited him to recite some of his poetry in a Zoom meeting, Mr Verma said. Dr Bechain died on April 29 of Covid. "That has really shaken us very much."

Mr Verma said that, despite his worries, some of the UK reports about the situation in India were 'slightly inflated'. They focussed on struggling hospitals in the Delhi area. "There are places where the infection rate is now coming down," he said.

Despite the unexpected explosion in cases, the death rate in India also remained comparatively low, he added. Our World In Data reported that, as of Sunday, 18.3 million Indians had recovered from the virus.

Nevertheless, while there were signs that the latest wave of the pandemic may be reaching its peak in India, the country was still in desperate need, Mr Verma said.

The UK has announced that it will be sending a further 1,000 ventilators to Indian hospitals to help the most severe Covid cases, in addition to the 200 ventilators, 495 oxygen concentrators and three oxygen generation units that had already been pledged.

But Mr Verma said: "There is a shortage of vaccines. If the UK government could be generous enough to send some more vaccines, that would be very helpful."