UN chief urges govt's worldwide to immediately 'scale up' virus fight

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks to during an interview in Lahore, Pakistan, February 18, 2020. /AP

Italian lawmaker Maria Teresa Baladini wears a face mask and gloves during a session in parliament on financial relief, in Rome, Italy, March 11, 2020. /AP

His appeal echoed an earlier one by the World Health Organization, which officially labeled the outbreak a pandemic on Wednesday and blamed its spread and severity on "alarming levels of inaction."

The declaration of a pandemic, Guterres said, was "also a call for responsibility and solidarity – as nations united and as people united."

"As we fight the virus, we cannot let fear go viral," he said. "As we mourn all those who have lost their lives and the many families who are suffering, we must show solidarity with the most vulnerable – the elderly, the sick, those without reliable healthcare, and those on the edge of poverty."

The UN Security Council is scaling back its own schedule for March as a precaution against the pandemic, having already pushed back major gatherings outside of the Security Council.

Source(s): AFP