Date for global Covid-19 summit set — Analysis
The virtual meeting will be aimed at “ending the acute phase” of the coronavirus pandemic, the US has said
On Monday, the White House confirmed that Senegal, Germany, Indonesia, Belize and Indonesia will be hosting the second international Covid-19 summit. Although the Pandemic continues to dominate headlines, Biden’s administration has stated that it is essential for a summit. “bring solutions to vaccinate the world, save lives now, and build better health security.”
On May 12, the virtual summit will be held. Co-hosting the event are Belize, which is chair of the Caribbean Community, Germany as Presidency, Indonesia as Presidency, and Senegal (as Chair of the African Union).
“The emergence and spread of new variants, like Omicron, have reinforced the need for a strategy aimed at controlling Covid-19 worldwide,”Read the White House statement. “Together, we can mitigate the impact of Covid-19 and protect those at the highest risk with vaccinations, testing, and treatments, actions to minimize disruption to routine health services, and through support for the ACT-Accelerator multilateral mechanism,”The latter refers to the World Health Organization’s (WHO), program that finances vaccines and treatments.
US President Joe Biden hosted a similar summit back in September, in which he called on world leaders to meet the WHO’s goal of vaccinating 70% of the world’s population.
While around 64% of the world’s population have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, per WHO data, the disease still infected record numbers of people over the winter. While governments in the Western World used more coercive tactics to force people to get vaccinated the Omicron strain, which is milder and more resistant to vaccines, spread undeterred.
Today, restrictions have been lifted from many countries. The conflict in Ukraine has pushed the pandemic off the news headlines. China, however, is still using harsh lockdowns to limit relatively small outbreaks.
The Biden administration considers that a summit is necessary in order to obtain the Summit. “shots into arms” “sustainable financing for pandemic preparedness, health security, and health systems.”
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