COVID-19: UN chief rejects 'new normal', says human contact important

United Nations Chief Antonio Guterres, on July 15, denounced the idea of ‘new normal’, calling the current situation as rather abnormal. Addressing the global youth in a webinar, Guterres emphasised the importance of human contact and admitted that he was missing his friends and family.

In the webinar, which talked about how to adapt and move forward in the reality of COVID-19, Guterres said that the pandemic has exposed the fragilities of the society and the need to build it back better. The UN chief, however, did not agree to the concept of ‘new normal’ and instead called it “abnormal.”

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Human contact important 

"For me, human life needs human contact”, he told the participants. Adding that he was missing his friends and family, he said that the new normal would only be established once humans are able to touch and establish that physical contact. Guterres, also opined that in today’s world, not only was universal health significant but also mental health, especially for the youth. “It is absolutely essential that governments make mental health central to their responses to COVID-19”, he said.

Meanwhile, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who also spoke at the webinar, stressed that COVID-19  has given the people a chance to improve. He said that the present moment should be used to strengthen the mental health of adolescents. "There is no health without mental health and The role of youth is crucial to make this happen”, he said.

The webinar also saw the participation from UNICEF Executive director Henriette Fore who emphasised that mental health would be a top priority for her organisation in the coming times. “Mental health and psychosocial support will be deeply ingrained in all of our programmes to engage young people and talk about good policies and services “in every country, she said.  This comes as the coronavirus pandemic which emerged in December 2019 has now spiralled out to infect 13,565,868 people.

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