G20 leadership vital in defence against Covid: UN chief

United Nations, Nov 23 : United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that the leadership of the Group of 20 (G20) is vital in the global struggle with the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Our greatest defence against Covid-19 is solidarity and cooperation,” the UN chief was speaking at a virtual summit of G20 leaders under the theme “Building an inclusive, sustainable and resilient future,” where he highlighted the importance of G20 leadership in the fight against the pandemic and the effort to build back better, Xinhua news agency reported.
First of all, the Secretary-General said that the G20 leadership is critical in “halting the further spread of the pandemic.” “Yesterday, I was encouraged by the broad recognition that vaccines – as well as tests and treatments – must be global public goods, available and affordable for all,” he said, referring to the progress in the first-day meeting of the summit.
“But I want to repeat the call on G20 members to support the ACT-Accelerator and its COVAX facility. There is a financial gap of 28 billion US dollars and we need 4.2 billion dollars of that immediately for mass manufacturing, procurement and distribution around the world,” he said.
The top UN official also said, the leadership is also vital in mobilizing the resources to build forward better.