UN chief calls coronavirus pandemic worst crisis since World War II
- At launch of report on socioeconomic impact of Covid-19, Secretary General Antonio Guterres says pandemic may bring recession with ‘no parallel in recent past’
- World leaders urged to ‘forget political games’ and understand that ‘humankind is at stake’
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned Tuesday that the world faces the most challenging crisis since World War II, confronting a pandemic threatening people in every country, one that will bring a recession “that probably has no parallel in the recent past.”
There is also a risk that the combination of the disease and its economic impact will contribute to “enhanced instability, enhanced unrest, and enhanced conflict,” the UN chief said at the launch of a report on the socioeconomic impact of Covid-19.
Guterres called for a much stronger and more effective global response to the coronavirus pandemic and to the social and economic devastation that Covid-19 is causing.
He stressed that this will only be possible “if everybody comes together and if we forget political games and understand that it is humankind that is at stake.”
“We are facing a global health crisis unlike any in the 75-year history of the United Nations – one that is killing people, spreading human suffering, and upending people’s lives,” the report said. “But this is much more than a health crisis. It is a human crisis. The coronavirus disease [Covid-19] is attacking societies at their core.”