LONDON, April 16. /TASS/. The leaders of the G7 countries agree that developing and producing a vaccine will be crucial to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, the statement distributed by the UK government said on Thursday after the virtual summit of G7 leaders.

"They agreed that the rapid development and production of coronavirus treatments and a vaccine will be crucial to stop the spread of the virus around the world," the statement said. "The [UK] First Secretary of State stressed the need for the response to be internationally coordinated," the statement added.

"G7 leaders also agreed on the importance of financial measures to defend the global economy against the impact of coronavirus. The First Secretary of State welcomed the efforts that have been made to coordinate economic responses, including agreements on debt relief earlier this week, and urged all countries to support long-term economic recovery," the statement said.

"Leaders discussed the particular risk coronavirus poses to developing nations and agreed on the need to fight coronavirus in every country. They committed to continue to support developing countries through bilateral assistance, multinational organisations and by ensuring governments around the world have access to medical supplies they need," the statement noted.

In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 2,000,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 126,800 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 485,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.