Washington 'Very Concerned' about COVID-19 Threat to Economic Recovery

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On Sunday in Venice, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that Washington is "deeply concerned" about the new COVID-19 mutation threat to the global economic recovery, warning of the dangers in a press conference in Venice.

During the press conference, Yellen explained her worries about the Delta variant and other variants of the Coronavirus, as they have the potential to appear and threaten the progress of recovery of the global economy. She added, "We are an interconnected global economy; what affects any country will affect us all."

"These mutant variants pose a threat to the entire world," said Yellen, as she called on senior global officials concerned with the economy and finance (who had met two days before in Venice), "[to] recognize the importance of working together to speed the process of vaccination and have the goal of wanting to vaccinate 70% of the world's population next year."

In terms of vaccines, Yellen said, "The international community must do more to fill near-term gaps in planning, coordination and logistics," she said. "This includes accelerating the equitable delivery and distribution of vaccines, as well as diagnostics and therapeutics and helping low and middle-income nations fight new flare-ups of the virus quickly."

At the conclusion of their meeting in Venice, the finance ministers of the G20 warned of the "dangers" posed by "the outbreak of the variants of the COVID-19 virus and different paces of vaccination on the recovery of the global economy."
In their final statement today, the G20 asserted that the crisis is not over yet, and that "if the global economic conditions have improved, especially thanks to the increase in vaccinations, this does not mean that the crisis is over."

At the summit, former Treasury Secretary Summers called on governments to finance projects related to fighting epidemics that could occur in the future, considering that investing in this field today is the equivalent to buying shares in Amazon in its infancy.

The highly contagious Delta variant continues to affect the recovery of economic activity throughout the world and has so far caused epidemic foci in Asia and Africa and an increase in infections in Europe and the United States.