Bill Gates: World health has ‘gone into reverse’ due to coronavirus pandemic

Bill Gates: World health has ‘gone into reverse’ due to coronavirus pandemic

DUBAI: The COVID-19 pandemic has reversed 25 years of progress in global health standards, and its long-term hit on the global economy will be "literally trillions of dollars,“ said philanthropist billionaire Bill Gates.

He was speaking to regional media ahead of the annual publication by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation of the "Goalkeepers“ report, which assesses progress toward the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

"Typically, we have positive news, even if it's not always completely on track. This year is different because of the pandemic. Progress hasn't just stopped, but gone into reverse,“ he said, adding that global immunization programs for other diseases such as polio had faltered because of the focus on the pandemic. "It has reversed the progress of 25 years in 25 weeks.“

Gates praised the efforts of regional governments