The United States as first COVID Summit Chair, Belize, as CARICOM Chair; Germany, holding the G7 Presidency; Indonesia, holding the G20 Presidency; and Senegal as African Union Chair, are pleased to announce we will co-host the second Global COVID-19 Summit, which will be held virtually on May 12, 2022. The Summit will redouble our collective efforts to end the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and prepare for future health threats.
This Summit follows the first Global COVID-19 Summit convened by the United States on September 22, 2021. In advance of the May 12 Summit, we are calling on world leaders, members of civil society, non-governmental organizations, philanthropists, and the private sector to make new commitments and bring solutions to vaccinate the world, save lives now, and build better health security - for everyone, everywhere.
The emergence and spread of new variants, like Omicron, have reinforced the need for a strategy aimed at controlling COVID-19 worldwide. Together, we can mitigate the impact of COVID-19 and protect those at the highest risk with vaccinations, testing, and treatments, actions to minimize disruption to routine health services, and through support for the ACT-Accelerator multilateral mechanism. We know we must prepare now to build, sustain, and finance the global capacity we need, not only for emerging COVID-19 variants, but also future health crises. To help achieve these goals, we urge all countries and stakeholders to pledge to take urgent actions to create the systems we need to end the acute phase of COVID-19, save lives, and build better health security and health systems.
The Summit will build on the themes and commitments made at the first Summit and will place an emphasis on supporting locally-led solutions to both immediate and long-term challenges, including:
- Getting shots into arms;
- Deploying tests and treatments, especially for the highest-risk populations;
- Expanding and protecting the health workforce and minimizing disruptions to routine and essential health services;
- Enhancing access to medical countermeasures, including research and development and scaling and diversifying local and regional manufacturing; and
- Generating sustainable financing for pandemic preparedness, health security, and health systems
We look forward to another successful Summit to continue the international effort in the fight against COVID-19 and to advance global pandemic preparedness.