Oggi 4 maggio 2020 l’Unione Europea e i suoi partner organizzano una conferenza internazionale per la raccolta di fondi in vista di una risposta globale al COVID-19.
L’obiettivo e’ raccogliere una somma iniziale di 7,5 miliardi di euro per avviare la cooperazione globale.
THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
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REMARKS AT ON-LINE PLEDGING EVENT FOR CORONAVIRUS GLOBAL RESPONSE: JOINING FORCES TO ACCELERATE THE DEVELOPMENT, PRODUCTION AND EQUITABLE ACCESS TO NEW COVID VACCINES, DIAGNOSTICS AND THERAPEUTICS 4 May 2020
I thank the European Commission, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Norway and Saudi Arabia for their leadership in hosting this important pledging conference.
In the span of a few short months, COVID-19 has spread to every corner of the world, infecting more than 3 million people and claiming more than 220,000 lives.
Comprehensive, coordinated public health measures are critical to slow transmission and save lives.
But even countries that have taken such steps remain in jeopardy.
And the virus is still likely to strike many countries that are least able to cope.
In an interconnected world, none of us is safe until all of us are safe.
I was proud to join the World Health Organization and an initial group of health actors to launch the ACT Accelerator – a landmark global collaboration to speed up the development, production and equitable access to new COVID-19 diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines.
These new tools can help us to fully control the pandemic, and must be treated as global public goods available and affordable to all.
This is the only path to a world free of COVID-19.
But it will require the most massive public health effort in history.
Today we are taking the next step: mobilizing resources for this vital endeavor.
I welcome the generous contributions being announced today towards the initial goal of 7.5 billion Euros. These funds are a down payment for developing the new tools at the speed needed.
But to reach everyone, everywhere, we will likely need five times this amount. I call on all partners to join in this effort as we look to gather again on May 23rd to sustain our momentum.
We have a common vision. Let us now put people first.
Thank you.