Chinese president Xi Jinping to attend special G20 leaders' summit via video call

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying on March 24 announced that President Xi Jinping will attend a special Group of 20 (G20) leaders' summit on Coronavirus outbreak. According to reports, the special video summit will be hosted by Saudi Arabia, the G20 Presidency in 2020, on March 26 and leaders from Germany, Japan, France, South Korea, the United States, and other member countries will also attend the meet. 

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According to reports, leaders from the 20 richest countries in the world will get together to seek ways to boost cooperation on overcoming the economic fallout from the pandemic based on results of a meeting held earlier on March 23 of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors. The leaders will focus on ways to block the spread of coronavirus and also develop an action plan to fight the pandemic. 

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Coronavirus outbreak

The COVID-19 has claimed more than 18,900 lives across the world and has infected nearly 4,22,000 people globally since it first broke out in December 2019. China was the most affected country until last week. However, Italy surpassed it to record the most number of deaths anywhere in the world due to COVID-19. The virus is believed to have originated from a seafood market in China's Wuhan city, the epicentre of the disease, where animals were reportedly being traded illegally.  

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Spain, and Iran are the most affected countries after Italy and China, where, as of March 24 the combined death toll stands at 4,925. France has now also joined the list of countries that have recorded more than 1,000 deaths. Health experts believe that the hotspot could soon shift to the United States, where 782 people have died so far, out of the 52,881 confirmed cases that the country has recorded since January 2020.

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(With inputs from Agencies)