WHO Chief Calls On G20 To 'Fight, Unite, Ignite' Against Coronavirus Pandemic

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th March, 2020) The head of the World Health Organization urged leaders of the Group of 20 major economies on Thursday to unite and "fight like hell" against the coronavirus pandemic.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the passionate speech during an emergency video conference called to coordinate a global response to the outbreak, which has claimed over 21,000 lives worldwide.

"We are one human race. Fight. Unite. Ignite. And let our singular resolve be: never again," he said.

Countries have been going into lockdown to slow the spread of the virus. Tedros said this would "take some of the heat out of the epidemic" but would not end it.

"We must do more. We must immediately build, expand, train and deploy health workers to find, test, isolate and treat every case and trace every contact," he said.

Secondly, he said, all countries are in this together and will get through the crisis together, which requires sharing experience, expertise and resources.

"We call on all of your nations to increase production, remove export bans and ensure equity of distribution," he stressed.

And, last but not least, the leaders must ignite innovation and repurpose the industrial might of their nations to produce more life-saving tools and come up with vaccines and treatments for the disease.