UNITED NATIONS, Mar 19 (APP):UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warnedon Thursday that millions of people could die if the coronavirus keptspreading, and called for a coordinated global response to combat thepandemic.
“If we let the virus spread like wildfire, especially in the mostvulnerable regions of the world, it would kill millions of people,” hesaid, urging G-20 countries to support those countries whose healthcaresystems are weaker.
“We must recognize that the poorest countries and most vulnerable —especially women — will be the hardest hit,” the United Nations chief toldreporters from the UN Headquarters in New York.
“Solidarity is not only a moral imperative, it is in everyone’s interests,”he added.
“We are facing a global health crisis unlike any in the 75-year history ofthe United Nations — one that is spreading human suffering, infecting theglobal economy and upending people’s lives,” Guterres said.
He urged governments to give “the strongest support to the multilateraleffort to fight the virus, led by the World Health Organisation (WHO),whose appeals must be fully met.”“The health catastrophe makes clear that we are only as strong as theweakest health system.”
Warning that a global recession of record dimensions is “a near certainty”,Guterres cited International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates thatworkers around the world could lose as much as USD 3.4 trillion in incomeby the end of this year.
“It has been proven that the virus can be contained. It must be contained.If we let the virus spread like wildfire – especially in the mostvulnerable regions of the world — it would kill millions of people,” hesaid.
The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 210,300 people in at least145 countries and as of Wednesday evening, at least 8,809 people have died,more than half of them outside China, where the epidemic first began in thecity of Wuhan.
Guterres stressed that current responses at the country level would notaddress the global scale and complexity of the crisis and called for acoordinated, decisive, and innovative policy action from the world’sleading economies.
Welcoming the decision by G20 leaders to convene an emergency summit nextweek to respond to the epic challenges posed by the pandemic, he said theworld is in an unprecedented situation and the normal rules no longer apply.
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“We cannot resort to the usual tools in such unusual times. The creativityof the response must match the unique nature of the crisis – and themagnitude of the response must match its scale. Our world faces a commonenemy. We are at war with a virus,” he said.
Guterres, however, noted that if the coordinated global action is doneright, “we can steer the recovery toward a more sustainable and inclusivepath. But poorly coordinated policies risk locking in — or even worsening —already unsustainable inequalities, reversing hard-won development gainsand poverty reduction.”
Calling on world leaders to come together and offer an urgent andcoordinated response to this global crisis, Guterres underlined threecritical areas for action — tackling the health emergency, focus on thesocial impact and economic response and recovery and refrain from thetemptation of resorting to protectionism.
He said there was an immediate need to move away from a situation whereeach country was undertaking its own health strategies to one that ensures,in full transparency, a coordinated global response, including helpingcountries that were less prepared to tackle the crisis.
“Governments must give the strongest support to the multilateral effort tofight the virus, led by the World Health Organisation, whose appeals mustbe fully met,” he said.Emphasizing that the coronavirus pandemic is unlike the 2008 financialcrisis and injecting capital in the financial sector alone will not be theanswer, Guterres said, “This is not a banking crisis – indeed banks must bepart of the solution. And it is not an ordinary shock in supply and demand;it is a shock to society as a whole.”
He said it was essentially a human crisis and called for wage support,insurance, social protection, preventing bankruptcies and job loss.
“We need to get resources directly in the hands of people. A number ofcountries are taking up social protection initiatives such as cashtransfers and universal income,” the UN chief said.
He said children were also paying a heavy price.
More than 800 million children are out of school right now and many of themrely on schools to provide their only meal.“We must ensure that all children have access to food and equal access tolearning – bridging the digital divide and reducing the costs ofconnectivity. We must ensure that lessons are learned and that this crisisprovides a watershed moment for health emergency preparedness and forinvestment in critical 21st century public services and the effectivedelivery of global public goods,” Guterres said.
