UN lacks leadership in dealing with virus: El Salvador

Organization has failed to unite world in facing pandemic despite having been created for events like this, says president

By Laura Gamba

BOGOTA, Colombia (AA) - El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Tuesday criticized a lack of leadership by the United Nations in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

"There has been a lack of leadership from this body to unite the world and face this virus in a common front," said Bukele.

During his speech at the UN General Assembly, the president said El Salvador had faced the health emergency caused by COVID-19 with the help of other countries, organizations and companies.

"This help has been mostly bilateral work and not necessarily thanks to the United Nations system, despite having been created largely for events like this, existential events for humanity," he added.

The Central American country, which has confirmed nearly 29,000 coronavirus cases and 839 deaths, has imposed strict confinement measures like closing borders and ordering police and the army to arrest hundreds of people to enforce restrictions.

Some of those measures have been challenged by the Supreme Court and human rights groups.

Argentina

Argentina is going through one of the worst economic recessions in its history as it sees COVID-19 infections rising quickly.

The latest tallies show that 736,609 people in the country have been confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus.

In the last 24 hours, 406 deaths were reported, bringing the death toll to 16,519 since the beginning of the pandemic.

Peru

In order to secure early access to vaccines, Peru is testing Chinese-made experimental COVID-19 vaccines undergoing final phase trials, and at least five other laboratories are interested in testing their vaccines in the country, which has the world’s largest per-capita death toll after Belgium.

President Martin Vizcarra affirmed Tuesday that “vaccination is an essential stage in the fight against COVID-19,” as it will serve to immunize the population. Therefore, he said, “the government is putting a lot of effort into this matter.”

Peru has reported more than 808,000 cases and 32,324 COVID-19 related deaths.

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