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NEW YORK / WAM
The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed just how important it is for all countries to have strong health systems that provide the entire population with quality services when and where they need them, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has stressed.
“For Universal Health Coverage Day, let us commit to ending this crisis and build a safer and healthier future by investing in health systems that protect us all now”, declared the UN chief, adding that: “This year’s pandemic has shown us that no one is safe until everyone is safe.”
In his message on the Day, marked annually on December 12, Mr Guterres underscored that in 2020, the world had witnessed the tragedy that strikes when health facilities are overwhelmed by a new, highly infectious and often deadly disease.
And further, the coronavirus outbreak had painfully illustrated what can happen when the effort to address an emergency so overstretches healthcare systems that they can no longer provide other essential services such as cancer screening, routine immunisation and care for mothers and babies.
“We must do far more if we are to reach our goal of achieving universal health coverage by 2030,” the Secretary-General said, referring to an agreement reached by UN Member States in September 2019, just months before the pandemic struck.
Reaching this goal would mean not just spending more on health, he said, but spending better.