Home World First UNSC Meeting on COVID-19 Set To Happen Next Week

First UNSC Meeting on COVID-19 Set To Happen Next Week

With more than 9,00,000 positive cases and around 46,000 deaths worldwide, the top body plans to discuss the pandemic.

The United Nations Security Council is expected to meet “next week or before” to discuss the coronavirus pandemic, Dominican Republic Ambassador Jose Singer, the current president of UNSC announced. The Dominican Republic assumed the presidency through rotation from China, leading the 15-nation apex council for the month of April. The date of the meeting has not been declared yet. According to Josh Hopkins University, the estimated number of positive cases throughout the world now stands at over 9,40,733 and more than 46,000 deaths.

Even as the number of confirmed cases and deaths rose exponentially across the world, UNSC under the presidency of China did not hold any meetings on the global health crisis. As of April 2, the United States has the highest number of confirmed cases at 2,15,344, followed by Italy at 1,10,574, Spain at 1,04,118 and China at 82,361. In 2000, UNSC had met to discuss the rapid escalation of Ebola/HIV in Africa and passes a resolution to ensure peace and security in Africa. This was the first time that the Security Council conducted a meeting for a public health emergency. This meeting is expected to produce a resolution on similar lines though President Singer has said that everything will depend on how the council meeting proceeds in April.