The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) declared December 27 as the International Day of Epidemic Preparedness following a resolution drafted by Vietnam.

Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy, Permanent Representative Vietnam to the UN. Photo: MOFA

The resolution was unanimously adopted with Canada, Niger, Senegal, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Spain as co-authors and 107 other countries as co-sponsors.

Vietnam chose the date December 27 as it is the birthday of Louis Pasteur, the French biologist, microbiologist and chemist and one of the most important founders of medical microbiology.

Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy, Permanent Representative Vietnam to the UN, introduced the draft resolution on International Day of Epidemic Preparedness at the 75th session of the General Assembly on December 7.

Mr. Quy said “the pandemic caught us off guard, but it also has served as a wake-up call for improving our preparedness.”

“In the future, another epidemic can break out at any moment and surpass previous incidences in terms of intensity and gravity if preparation is not made,” the Vietnamese diplomat said.

He said the day will remind all stakeholders of the impacts left by recent epidemics and the need to have a permanent sense of epidemic prevention in all of their activities.

In addition, it will underline the need to raise the level of preparedness in order to have the earliest and most adequate response to any epidemic that may arise.

It will stress the importance of partnership among every individual, community, state, and also regional and international organizations in all stages of epidemic management.

Vietnam, the country has been taken as an example of effective response to the Covid-19 pandemic by the UN, confirms 1,367 coronavirus infections and 35 deaths as of December 8.

So far, the world’s caseload has reached 67.46 million while death toll surpassed 1.54 million.

Vietnam is a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for the term 2020-21.