UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged the Group of 20 (G20) countries to take the leading role in ending the Covid-19 pandemic by partnering with the United Nations.
“I urge G20 countries, in collaboration with the United Nations, to assume a strong leadership role in ending this devastating global pandemic,” the UN chief said on Friday at the Global Health Summit, a virtual day-long conference aimed at coordinating worldwide efforts against the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking about the global effort to contain the virus, the top UN official said that grossly unequal access to vaccines, tests, medicines and supplies, including oxygen, have left poorer countries at the mercy of the virus.
“Recent surges of Covid-19 in India, South America and other regions have left people literally gasping for breath before our eyes. The pandemic is still very much with us, thriving and mutating, he warned. Guterres said that vaccinating quickly and thoroughly around the world, together with continued public health measures, are the only way to end the pandemic and prevent more dangerous variants from gaining a foothold.”
But so far, more than 82 per cent of the world’s vaccine doses have gone to affluent countries. Just 0.3 per cent have gone to low-income countries, he said.
The G20’s Rome Declaration is a significant step to provide equal access to vaccines. But we need a follow-up mechanism, backed by the political will to translate the declaration into a global vaccination plan, said the secretary-general. Come together to fight Covid is the message.