Only COVID-19 vaccine can allow return to 'normalcy': UN chief

CAIRO – 16 April 2020: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said a COVID-19 vaccine may be the only thing that can bring back "normalcy", hoping for just that before the end of the year.

"A safe and effective vaccine may be the only tool that can return the world to a sense of 'normalcy', saving millions of lives and countless trillions of dollars," he added during a video conference with the 50 or so African countries that are members of the United Nations.

He called for its accelerated development and accessibility to all, adding it must have a "universal global benefit" and "allow us to control the pandemic".

Guterres has said that it is absolutely essential to have normality in the attribution of visas so that the UN can function normally.

"It is absolutely essential to have normality in the attribution of visas," the secretary-general told reporters in UN headquarters in New York at a press conference on UN work priorities for 2020 when answering the question that "the heart of the United Nations is becoming less accessible lately."

Guterres said that in situations that involve matters of national security, it is "understandable in any country of the world" to impose restrictions on visas.

"But what we are witnessing is, of course, something that needs to be normalized," he said.

"We need to have normal conditions for functioning of the United Nations, which means that visas need to be attributed in a regular way," the secretary-general said.

The United States denied a visa to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif that would have allowed him to attend a UN Security Council meeting in New York on Jan 9, Xinhua reported.

The United States also failed to issue visas to a Russian delegation in time to attend the UN General Assembly last year.

For his part, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that Canadians won’t be able to return to life as they knew it before the novel coronavirus pandemic until a vaccine is available.

“Normality as it was before will not come back full-on until we get a vaccine for this… That will be a very long way off,” the prime minister said during his daily news conference on Canada’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

“We will have to remain vigilant for at least a year,” he added in French.

Guterres has said his appeal on March 25 for US$2 billion (S$2.85 billion) in donations for a comprehensive UN humanitarian response to the pandemic had so far raised about 20 per cent of that amount.

Through the World Health Organisation, the United Nations has been able to equip 47 African countries with Covid-19 tests, he said.

The UN chief also praised the efforts of several African governments to mitigate the consequences of the pandemic.