Coronavirus: We’ve all gone down together, we should rise together - President to UN Assembly

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is calling on global leaders to rally together in a collective effort in finding solutions such as vaccines to the ravaging effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the President, the whole world finds itself affected by the pandemic and therefore needs an all hands-on deck approach in bringing the globe back on its feet.

“The lessons are clear: we all fell together and looked into the abyss together. Even as we closed our borders and shut airports, the reality dawned on all of us that we had to rely on each other to be able to get out of the trouble we were in. We have all gone down together, we should all rise together,” he told the 75th Session of the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, September 23, 2020.

The President who made his address via a virtual presentation said, “If the answer to this pandemic lies in finding a vaccine, that vaccine should be made available to the whole world.

“If the answer to this pandemic lies in finding a vaccine, that vaccine should be made available to the whole world; rich and poor alike, developed and developing, all races and all beliefs. The virus has taught us that we are all at risk, and there is no special protection for the rich or a particular class. For as long as the virus exists, whatever medical solutions that might be found should be made available for all in aid of our common humanity,” the president said.

The president while assessing the financial impacts of the pandemic on the economies of developing countries, called for a restructuring of the global financing architecture to enable access to fresh capital by developing nations.

According to him, this is an immediate necessity to prevent the erosion of the gains chalked by developing economies as well as maintaining and growing the standard of living of their citizens above dangerous levels.

The 75th United Nations General Assembly held unlike previous sessions have some world leaders making their presentations from their home countries.

This has been as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak which has caused the closure of borders and have resulted in the slowdown of global activities.

Watch the president's address below: