Coronavirus is ‘worst global crisis’ since WWII, UN chief says

The coronavirus pandemic is the worst global crisis since World War II, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said.

The scale of the crisis is due to “a disease that represents a threat to everybody in the world and… an economic impact that will bring a recession that probably has no parallel in the recent past,” he noted.

The combination of the two facts and the risk that “it contributes to enhanced instability, enhanced unrest, and enhanced conflict are things that make us believe that this is the most challenging crisis we have faced since the Second World War,” Guterres told reporters on Tuesday.

A stronger and more effective response “is only possible in solidarity if everybody comes together and if we forget political games and understand that it is humankind that is at stake,” AFP quoted the UN chief as saying.