NEW YORK—The United States was supported only by Israel Friday in a vote against a UN resolution for a “comprehensive and coordinated response” to the COVID-19 pandemic, a text that included recognition of the WHO’s leadership role.
The measure, which has been negotiated since May, was adopted by an overwhelming majority of 169 countries out of 193, with Ukraine and Hungary abstaining.
The text, called an omnibus resolution because it covers multiple aspects of the pandemic, “acknowledges the key leadership role of WHO and the fundamental role of the United Nations system in catalyzing and coordinating the comprehensive global response to the Covid-19 pandemic.”
The United States withdrew from the WHO this spring, accusing the body of mismanaging the coronavirus pandemic and delaying launch of a global alert.
The text “calls for intensified international cooperation and solidarity to contain, mitigate and overcome the pandemic and its consequences.”
And it supports UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ call in March for a ceasefire between countries in order to better facilitate the fight against the pandemic — a request that has been little followed.
The text additionally calls for “the urgent removal of unjustified obstacles,” meaning sanctions, in order to create better access to products used in combatting the virus.
It requests nations to maintain food and agricultural supply chains and encourages synching economic recovery strategies to promote sustainable development and combat climate change.
Ahead of the vote, the United States unsuccessfully attempted to remove a paragraph on protecting women in the area of sexual and reproductive health, over objections about abortion.
Libya and Iraq also voted for the paragraph’s removal. However more than 120 countries voted to keep it and 25 countries abstained.
Meanwhile, Brazil’s death toll from Covid-19 surpassed 130,000 Friday, amid cautious optimism over signs the virus is finally slowing in the hard-hit South American country.
With the second-highest death toll in the pandemic after the United States, Brazil has been devastated by the new coronavirus, which has now claimed 130,396 lives in the country, according to the health ministry.
Brazil, home to 212 million people, has registered nearly 4.3 million infections, behind only the US and India.
After a seemingly endless plateau in which the number of daily deaths was regularly over 1,000 from June to August, Brazil’s curve appears to be descending at last.
The average number of deaths per day for the past week was 696.
“The models indicate we are past the peak… and starting a descent, albeit with levels that are still unacceptably high,” immunologist Guilherme Werneck told a seminar this week organized by Brazil’s leading public health research institute, the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz).
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro faces criticism for his handling of the virus, which he has downplayed as a “little flu.”
