The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, stressed that the Corona virus "Covid-19" will not be the last pandemic facing humanity, and he urged all countries to support the international efforts aimed at ensuring that the world is equipped and ready to face the health challenges ahead.

This came in his message on the occasion of the International Epidemic Preparedness Day, which is celebrated by the United Nations on December 27 of each year.

"Three years ago this month, the virus that causes COVID-19 was discovered for the first time," Guterres said, noting that the costs were catastrophic: "Millions of lives were lost, hundreds of millions fell ill. Economies were shattered, and health systems were burdened." Trillions of dollars were lost. Progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals was derailed.”

The Secretary-General indicated that developing countries were mostly left alone trying to stave off the danger, and were disgracefully deprived of the vaccines, tests or treatments they needed to protect their people, as he put it.

Guterres warned that the COVID-19 pandemic will not be the last pandemic or pandemic faced by humanity. “That is why we, as a global community, must heed the hard lessons we learned from this pandemic and make bold investments in pandemic preparedness, prevention and response.”

The Secretary-General stressed that we need better surveillance to detect and monitor viruses with the ability to spread epidemics, and we need more resilient health systems supported by universal health coverage, and we need a health workforce that is well trained and equipped and receives remunerative salaries.

"We also need to enable all countries to have equitable access to life-saving vaccines, treatments, diagnostics and technology," he added.

The Secretary-General also stressed the importance of fighting the scourge of misinformation and pseudoscience, armed with science and fact-based information. He added, “Pandemies are not fought in every country separately. The warning".
Source: Middle East News Agency