Boris urges international action to help defeat virus
BORIS Johnson last night urged world leaders to recreate the spirit of Nato in building an international alliance to combat coronavirus. Hosting a virtual global summit to discuss the search for a vaccine, the Prime Minister said the world needed a similar commitment to “collective defence” against a “common enemy” to stamp out the disease.
The UK-hosted event, involving representatives from more than 50 countries including at least 30 national leaders, raised nearly £7billion for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance to fight coronavirus and other diseases.
Closing the summit last night, the Prime Minister said: “We now need the same spirit of collective defence against the common enemy of the disease.
“It will require a new international effort to co-operate on the surveillance and the sharing of information – data is king – that can underpin a global alert system so we can rapidly identify any future outbreak.” Mr Johnson said the cash raised at the summit will save up to eight million lives and help healthcare systems in the world’s poorest countries.
He pointed out that the UK had already committed £764million for the global response and said the UK would remain the world’s leading donor to Gavi – contributing £1.65billion over the next five years.
Official data last night showed that the UK’s daily death toll rose by 176 yesterday to a total of 39,904.
Mr Johnson said: “To defeat coronavirus we must focus our collective ingenuity on the search for a vaccine and ensure that countries, pharmaceutical companies and international partners – like the World Health Organisation – co-operate on a scale beyond anything we have seen before.
“We must use the collective purchasing power of Gavi, the vaccine alliance, to make that future vaccine affordable and available to all who need it.”
US President Donald Trump, in a video clip filmed outside the White House, said: “As coronavirus has shown, there are no borders, it doesn’t discriminate. It’s mean, it’s nasty but we’re going to all take care of it together.”