COVID-19 is a truly global crisis. This week, Secretary-General António Guterres called it “the biggest challenge for the world since World War Two”. By definition, that would make it the greatest challenge the United Nations has ever faced.
No country can escape either the health dimension of this crisis, or the economic dimension, on its own. As China has recently learned, even countries that control domestic transmission will remain vulnerable to viral resurgence while other countries struggle with COVID-19.