'The World Must Come Together'- UN Secretary-General On Covid-19

The International Day Of Epidemic Preparedness is observed every year on December 27 as a day to focus on the importance of prevention and preparedness against epidemics. First observed by United Nations General Assembly in 2017, the focus at this year's conference was the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres reflected upon the state of countries during the Covid-19 pandemic and emphasised on the need to fight this together. In his message on International Day of Epidemic Preparedness 2022, he said, "Three years ago, this month, the virus that causes COVID-19 was first detected. The costs have been catastrophic. Millions of lives have been lost, and hundreds of millions of people have fallen ill. Economies were shattered, health systems were stretched, and trillions of dollars were lost."

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UN On International Day Of Epidemic Preparedness 2022

The Secretary-General touched upon the topic of the struggles that the developing nations faced and said, "Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals has been thrown off track. And developing countries were often left to fend for themselves, shamefully denied the vaccines, tests or treatments they needed to protect their people. COVID-19 will not be the last epidemic or pandemic humanity faces. As a global community, we must heed the harsh lessons of COVID-19 and make bold investments in pandemic preparedness, prevention and response."

Guterres highlighted what the world needs to focus on sighting the damages caused by the pandemic and stated, "We need better surveillance to detect and monitor viruses with epidemic potential. We need more resilient health systems supported by universal health coverage. And we need a health workforce that is well-trained, well-equipped and well-paid. We also need equitable access to vaccines, treatments, diagnostics and life-saving technology for all countries. And we must fight the scourge of misinformation and pseudoscience with science and fact-based information."

"A pandemic cannot be fought country by country. The world must come together. COVID-19 was a wake-up call. On this International Day of Epidemic Preparedness, I urge all countries to stand with our efforts to ensure the world is equipped and ready to take on the health challenges to come.", said Guterres as he gave a message to countries to come together and work towards developing better health systems and focusing on the needs of the planet and healing it.