In a speech to the United Nations, Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) paid tribute to the world’s successes in fighting pandemics. “The Covid crisis has shown us many areas in which we have to improve. But we also showed our best side in the pandemic,” he said on Tuesday morning (local time) in the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) with a view to vaccine development and the self-sacrificing work of health workers.
“Health workers and other frontline workers around the world have risked their lives to keep other people safe. Global scientific collaboration has made it possible to develop vaccines in record time. Multilateral mechanisms have been put in place to help countries in need of vaccines “said Kurz. In New York he again promised to donate a million AstraZeneca cans to the Western Balkans. 600,000 cans have already gone to the Western Balkans, and one million is to be added.
New York: Briefly warns of a new wave
“There is still a lot to be done, but these examples give us the hope that we can overcome the crisis together and return to normal,” said the Chancellor at a “High Level Political Forum” attended by UN Secretary General António Guterres participated.
Guterres warned of mutations
In his speech, Guterres painted a dramatic picture of the economic and social impact of the pandemic. Millions of people have slipped into poverty, two out of three children no longer have school lessons. “Violence against women has reached shocking levels,” stressed the UN Secretary-General. At the same time, he warned that the pandemic could be exacerbated by new, more contagious mutations. “The world needs a global vaccination plan,” he called for vaccine production to be doubled.
Kurz emphasized that the reconstruction after the pandemic should not forget the poorer countries and also highlighted the vaccine donations in this regard. “One thing is clear: we have to work together and support one another. We have to learn from one another and share best practices,” emphasized Kurz. He then presented the lessons that Austria had learned from the pandemic and specifically named the extensive test strategy that accompanied the opening of the school, the economic support measures including short-time work that “saved over a million jobs” and the need to to do more for digitization. He wants to invest 1.4 billion euros in digitization and broadband expansion.
Kurz also expressed his satisfaction in the speech that Austria is doing particularly well in meeting the UN development goals, and according to a recent UN report it is among the top 10 of all countries.
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