Historic health assembly ends with global commitment to COVID-19 response – World Health Organization

At todays meeting of the 73rd World Health Assemblyits first-ever to be held virtuallydelegates adopted a landmark resolution to bring the world together to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

The resolution, co-sponsored by more than 130 countries, was adopted by consensus.

It calls for the intensification of efforts to control the pandemic, and for equitable access to and fair distribution of all essential health technologies and products to combat the virus. It also calls for an independent and comprehensive evaluation of the global response, including, but not limited to, WHOs performance.

As WHO convened ministers of health from almost every country in the world, the consistent message throughout the two-day meetingincluding from the 14 heads of state participating in the opening and closing sessions was that global unity is the most powerful tool to combat the outbreak. The resolution is a concrete manifestation of this call, and a roadmap for controlling the outbreak.

In his closing remarks, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said COVID-19 has robbed us of people we love. Its robbed us of lives and livelihoods; its shaken the foundations of our world; it threatens to tear at the fabric of international cooperation. But its also reminded us that for all our differences, we are one human race, and we are stronger together.

The World Health Assembly will reconvene later in the year.

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Historic health assembly ends with global commitment to COVID-19 response - World Health Organization