UN, April 10. /TASS/. Countries need to put aside their prejudices and suspicions in order to defeat the novel coronavirus, Russia’s UN envoy, Vasily Nebenzya, told the UN Security Council session on COVID-19.
"It’s a warfare. Warfare against an invisible enemy. To win against it and to overcome its consequences we need also to overcome our prejudices, phobias, hatreds, distrust, suspicions," reads the transcript of Nebenzya’s speech posted on the website of the Russian permanent mission to the UN.
He also said the Group of Twenty (G20) should play the leading role in establishing "common framework for economic responses to resuscitate world economy after the shock caused by the pandemic."
"Time to draw conclusions and learn lessons from the current crisis has not yet come. So let’s not rush at that. But it will arrive. And that will be a test of our maturity, individual, national," Nebenzya said.
On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 1,500,000 people have been infected worldwide and almost 90,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far over 331,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.