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Washington (AFP) – A world summit to envision the end of the covid-19 crisis and plan responses to future health threats will take place on May 12, the White House reported Monday.
The virtual meeting will be co-chaired by the United States together with Germany, which currently chairs the G7; the head of the G20 Indonesia, Senegal, president of the African Union and Belize, for the Caribbean Community (Caricom).
“The summit will redouble our collective efforts to end the severe phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and prepare for future health threats,” the countries said in a joint statement.
It will be the second world meeting on the pandemic, which since it broke out two years ago has left more than six million dead and profound disruptions to the economy and trade worldwide.
US President Joe Biden hosted a similar meeting in September, calling on partner countries to increase vaccinations and ensure that 70% of the population in each country has been vaccinated by September of this year.
Although the death rate has decreased, the virus continues to spread, preventing many countries from fully lifting restrictions on mobility. The inhabitants of China’s Shanghai endure a prolonged confinement.
The host countries of the summit called for maintaining a sense of urgency in the face of the health crisis.
“We call on world leaders, members of civil society, NGOs, philanthropists and the private sector to make new commitments and provide solutions to vaccinate the world, save lives now and build better health security for everyone, everywhere,” they said. in the statement.
“The emergence and spread of new variants, such as omicron, have reinforced the need for a strategy to control covid-19 worldwide,” they added.
And while the latest variants are less lethal, the summit will seek to focus on preventing future catastrophes from taking the world by surprise.
“We know we have to prepare now to build, sustain and fund the global capacity we need, not only for emerging COVID-19 variants, but also for future health crises,” the statement said.
© 2022 AFP
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