US is ‘very concerned’ Covid variants could risk economic recovery
VENICE: US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said yesterday she was "very concerned" about the risk that new variants of the coronavirus could pose to the global economic recovery.
"We are very concerned about the Delta variant and other variants that could emerge and threaten recovery," she told reporters after a G-20 meeting in Venice, Italy. "We are a connected global economy, what happens in any part of the world affects all other countries."
In a final communique late on Saturday, G-20 finance ministers noted the fragility of the global economy in the face of variants.
"The recovery is characterised by great divergences across and within countries and remains exposed to downside risks, in particular the spread of new variants of the Covid-19 virus and different paces of vaccination," it read.
The communique, while stressing support for "equitable global sharing" of vaccines, did not propose concrete measures, merely acknowledging a recommendation for US$50 billion (S$68 billion) in new vaccine financing by the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, World Health Organisation and World Trade Organisation.
Ms Yellen said yesterday: "We recognise the importance of working together to speed the process of vaccination and have the goal of wanting to vaccinate 70 per cent of the world's population next year."
She said "a lot has been done" to finance the purchase of vaccines by developing countries, but the world needed to "do something more and to be more effective" in responding to outbreaks around the world. - AFP, REUTERS
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