UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged all countries, including Nigeria, to step up efforts to ensure the world is equipped and ready to take on the health challenges to come.

Mr Guterres made the call on Tuesday in his message to mark the International Day of Epidemic Preparedness, marked annually on December 27 to create awareness about epidemics.

The UN chief reminded that three years ago, the virus that causes COVID-19 was first detected, noting that the costs have been catastrophic.

Since the pandemic struck, he pointed out that millions of lives had been lost, as hundreds of millions had fallen ill.

“And economies have been shattered, health systems stretched, and trillions of dollars lost. Moreover, progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been ‘thrown off track’,” stated Mr Guterres.

The UN chief added, “Developing countries were often left to fend for themselves, shamefully denied the vaccines, tests or treatments they needed to protect their people.”

According to him, COVID-19 will not be humanity’s last epidemic or pandemic.

“As a global community, we must heed the harsh lessons of COVID-19 and make bold investments in pandemic preparedness, prevention and response,” he said.

Mr Guterres underscored the need for better surveillance “to detect and monitor viruses with epidemic potential,” resilient health systems supported by universal health coverage, and a “well-trained, well-equipped and well-paid” health workforces.

“We also need equitable access to vaccines, treatments, diagnostics and life-saving technology for all countries,” added Mr Guterres.

He highlighted the need to “fight the scourge” of misinformation and pseudoscience with “science and fact-based information,” noting that a pandemic cannot be fought country by country.

“The world must come together. COVID-19 was a wake-up call,” the UN secretary-general stated.

(NAN)