File Picture
The world faces its gravest test from the coronavirus pandemic that poses a significant threat to the maintenance of international peace and security, said United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
He further went on to say that the pandemic could potentially lead “to an increase in social unrest and violence that would greatly undermine our ability to fight the disease.”
This is the fight of a generation – and the raison d’être of the UN itself.
To prevail against the pandemic, we will need to work together.
–@antonioguterres to UN Security Council on #COVID19. https://t.co/BF8jNVCdbH— United Nations (@UN) April 10, 2020
He also urged the members of the Security Council to display unity.”To prevail against the pandemic today, we will need to work together. That means heightened solidarity,” he said during a closed video-teleconferencing session of the Security Council, which held its first meet on the coronavirus ever since the pandemic that has claimed over 1.5 million lives and infected 90,000 people worldwide.
We are facing a global health crisis.
This a moment that demands coordinated, decisive & innovative action.
This is, above all, a human crisis that calls for solidarity.
— @antonioguterres on #COVID19 https://t.co/g4EKemD0OY pic.twitter.com/7Yvuz82yBa
— United Nations (@UN) March 20, 2020
“Every country is now grappling with or poised to suffer devastating consequences of the COVID19 Pandemic; tens of thousands of lost lives; broken families; overwhelmed hospitals and overworked essential workers,” the Secretary-General said in his remarks to the Security Council on the COVID-19 Pandemic.The virus had originated in China’s Wuhan last year.
“We are all struggling to absorb the unfolding shock: the jobs that have disappeared and businesses that have suffered; the fundamental and drastic shift to our daily lives, and the fear that the worst is still yet to come, especially in the developing world and countries already battered by armed conflict. While the COVID-19 pandemic is first and foremost a health crisis, its implications are much more far-reaching,” he said.
Guterres identified eight risks which he said are particularly pressing including — the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to further erode trust in public institutions, economic fallout of this crisis could create major stressors, the postponement of elections or referendum among others.
