UN special session: PM calls for Covid-19 vaccine access

Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith has underlined the need for multilateral cooperation in developing Covid-19 vaccines and providing them at an affordable price, during an address to the United Nations. 
Speaking at the Special Session of the UN General Assembly in Response to Coronavirus Disease Pandemic held online on December 3, PM Thongloun

called for the international community to support COVAX – an initiative working for global equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines.
This is to make the Covid-19 vaccine ‘a global public goods’, the prime minister said, according to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The premier made the comment as several companies and research bodies have announced initial success in developing Covid-19 vaccines, which are expected to become available in the near future.
The two-day Special Session, which ends today (December 4), is being convened as the number of people infected with and dying from the virus continues to rise.
Worldwide, more than 54 million people have contracted the virus and more than 1.3 million people have died, according to the United Nations.
The pandemic is not only the greatest global health crisis since the creation of the United Nations 75 years ago, it is also a humanitarian, socio-economic, security and human rights crisis.
“It could result in the worst global recession since the Great Depression,” the UN said.
PM Thongloun told the session that the Lao government has imposed strict prevention and control measures, which have enabled Laos to contain the virus.
Laos has recorded just 39 infected cases of the virus and no deaths.
The prime minister said the government has lifted some restrictions in order to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on the economy.

By Times Reporters
(Latest Update December 4, 2020)