COVID-19 the most challenging crisis since WWII: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said the COVID-19 pandemic is the most challenging crisis since the Second World War as it represents a threat to everybody.

“The pandemic represents a threat to everybody in the world and it has an economic impact that will bring a recession that probably has no parallel in the recent past," Guterres said on Tuesday at the virtual press launch of the UN report "Shared responsibility, global solidarity: Responding to the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19,” Xinhua news agency quoted Guterres as saying.

He added, “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, indeed, the most challenging crisis we have faced since the Second World War and the one that needs a stronger and more effective response that 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.”

The secretary-general emphasised that he has been in touch with world leaders, and said that "there is a growing consciousness that we are in this together and we need to come out of it together."

"The problem is how to create the practical ways to do so, while also ensuring fast action. It’s critical,” he further said.

"We are slowly moving in the right direction, but we need t