By Our Special Correspondent
The White House has announced that the United States will co-host the second global COVID-19 summit virtually on May 12 to continue the international effort in the fight a
gainst pandemic and to advance global preparedness.
The summit will redouble our collective efforts to end the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and prepare for future health threats," said the White House in its press release on Monday.
The United States as first COVID Summit Chair, Belize, as CARICOM Chair; Germany, holding the G7 Presidency; Indonesia, holding the G20 Presidency; and Senegal as African Union Chair, are pleased to announce we will co-host the second Global COVID-19 Summit, which will be held virtually on May 12, 2022. The Summit will redouble our collective efforts to end the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and prepare for future health threats.
"The emergence and spread of new variants, like Omicron, have reinforced the need for a strategy aimed at controlling Covid-19 worldwide," it said. The United States has pledged to deliver at least 1.1 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses for global use before 2023 and has so far shipped around half of that. However, Biden's ambition to make the United States an "arsenal for vaccines" similar to US leadership in World War II now faces political headwinds.
Also muddying the waters is the war in Ukraine, which is sapping diplomatic attention in the world's most powerful countries. A source familiar with the issue told AFP that nevertheless the pandemic response remains seen as fundamentally important.
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