Tuesday, the United Nations called for a "large-scale, organized and systematic multilateral response" to the coronavirus pandemic to be initiated, an ambitious plan that would reflect at least one-tenth of the global gross domestic product.
The intergovernmental organization proposed an action plan in a 26-page study to tackle the numerous socio-economic impacts of COVID-19, which it described as a "global health crisis unlike any in the UN's 75-year history."
"This study is an appeal for action, for the urgent health response required to avoid transmission of the virus to end the pandemic; and to resolve the many social and economic aspects of this crisis," the paper states.
"It is, above all, an appeal to concentrate on people – women, young people, low-wage workers, small and medium-sized enterprises, the informal sector and disadvantaged groups that are already in the sector.
The study also states that "ensuring that developed countries have the best chance of handling this epidemic is in everyone's interest," or else the coronavirus "would risk being a long-lasting brake on economic recovery."
The rollout of the program followed the announcement by UN Secretary-General António Guterres of a "COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund" set up to "fund efforts in low- and middle-income countries" to combat the coronavirus.
Guterres said in a statement that the "human crisis" of COVID-19 "demands coordinated, decisive, inclusive and innovative policy action from the world's leading economies – and maximum financial and technical support for the poorest and most vulnerable people and countries."
More than 862,000 people around the world have become infected by COVID-19, and at least 42,404 have perished as a result of the disease. Because of limited testing capacity and unreliable reporting data from certain foreign governments, experts agree the actual number of positive cases is much greater.
The United States, which has become the new epicenter of the pandemic, now has more confirmed cases than anywhere else in the world. But despite the demand by the UN for an international response to the coronavirus, the Trump administration has shown reluctance to enforce even national standards for managing its spread across the country.
Instead, states have imposed a patchwork of directives ranging from shelter-in-place orders to less severe instructions, while the federal government this week extended its recommended social-distancing guidelines for another month. Other suggested mitigation measures, including the wearing of masks by Americans in public, are also under consideration by the administration.
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