Global recession a near certainty owing to COVID19, UN predicts

A global recession – perhaps of record dimensions – is a near certainty due to the COVID19 pandemic, said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

“Our economic response must focus on people,” Guterres twitted on his verified page on Friday.

“The recovery must not come at the expense of the poorest – and we cannot create a legion of new poor,” he said.

The UN chief stressed solidarity, hope and the political will to tackle the pandemic, reports UNB.

As public fear and uncertainty grow around the COVID-19 pandemic, “more than ever before, we need solidarity, hope and the political will to see this crisis through together,” António Guterres said on Thursday in his first virtual press conference.

Unlike any global health crisis in the 75-year history of the United Nations, the coronavirus pandemic is “spreading human suffering, infecting the global economy and upending people’s lives”, he added.

Calling for global solidarity, Guterres said: “Our human family is stressed, and the social fabric is being torn. People are suffering, sick and scared”.

The death toll from the coronavirus or COVID-19 has reached 10,049 globally as of Friday.

It has so far infected 246,467 people around the world, according to worldometer.

Of them, 147,935 are currently being treated with 7,389 being in serious or critical condition.

So far, 98,532 cases had outcomes and of them, 88,483 (90 per cent) recovered and 10 per cent died.

COVID-19 is affecting 182 countries and territories around the world and one international conveyance (the Diamond Princess cruise ship harboured in Yokohama, Japan).

The World Health Organization on March 11 declared the coronavirus crisis a pandemic.