G7 leaders are to commit to using all their resources in an effort to ensure the devastation caused by a pandemic like Covid-19 is never repeated.

On the second day of their summit in Cornwall, they will issue a declaration that sets out a series of measures intended to achieve this.

The aim is to slash the time needed to develop vaccines to under 100 days.

On Friday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson opened the summit with a plea to tackle global inequality.

The G7 (Group of Seven) is an organisation made up of the world’s seven largest so-called advanced economies: Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, the UK and the US.

Two top EU politicians are also attending the summit.

What measures will be unveiled?

The G7 leaders will issue the Carbis Bay Declaration after a special session on Saturday, which will set out a plan to try to prevent any repeat of the human and economic devastation wreaked by Covid-19.

Globally, more than 175 million people have had the infection since the outbreak began, with over 3.7 million Covid-related deaths, according to America’s Johns Hopkins university.

The G7 declaration will spell out a series of concrete steps, including:

-Slashing the time taken to develop and licence vaccines, treatments and diagnostics for any future disease to under 100 days

-Reinforcing global surveillance networks and genomic sequencing capacity

-Support for reforming and strengthening the World Health Organization (WHO)

(BBC)