WORLD LEADERS SET TO FOCUS ON PANDEMIC, CLIMATE CRISIS AT KEY UN SUMMIT

UNITED NATIONS: World leaders are assembling at the United Nations in New York this week with a focus on boosting efforts to fight both the climate crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic, which last year forced them to send video statements for the annual gathering.

As the coronavirus pandemic still rages amid an inequitable vaccine roll-out, about a third of the 193 UN states are planning to again send videos, but presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers for the remainder are due to travel to the US.

The United States tried to dissuade leaders from coming to New York in a bid to stop the UN General Assembly (UNGA) from becoming a “super-spreader event”, although President Joe Biden will address the assembly in person, his first UN visit since taking office. A so-called UN honour system means that anyone entering the assembly hall effectively declares they are vaccinated against Covid, but they do not have to show proof.

This system will be broken when the first country speaks Brazil. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is a vaccine sceptic, who last week declared that he does not need the shot because he is already immune after being infected with Covid-19.

Should he changes his mind, New York City has set up a van outside the United Nations for the week to supply free testing and free shots of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said that the discussions around how many travelling diplomats might have been immunised illustrated “how dramatic the inequality is today in relation to vaccination”. Guterres is pushing for a global plan to vaccinate 70% of the world by the first half of next year.

Out of 5.7 billion doses of coronavirus vaccines administered around the world, only 2% have been in Africa.