Narendra Modi will participate in the Second Global COVID Virtual Summit on May 12 at the invitation of US President Joe Biden.

The Summit intends to galvanize new actions to address the continued challenges of the COVID pandemic and build a stronger global health security architecture.

According to a Ministry of External Affairs release, Prime Minister will deliver his remarks in the opening session of the summit on the theme ‘Preventing Pandemic Fatigue and Prioritizing Preparedness’.

The session will be live-streamed from 1830 to 1945 hrs on May 12.

Other participants are co-hosts of the event – Heads of State/Government of Belize in its capacity as Chair of CARICOM, Senegal as Chair of African Union, Indonesia as President of G20 and Germany as President of G7 respectively.

Secretary-General of the United Nations, Director General of World Health Organization and other dignitaries would also participate.

PM Modi had also participated in the first Global COVID virtual Summit hosted by Biden in September 2021.

The release said that India is playing a key role in ongoing global efforts to combat the pandemic by supplying safe and affordable vaccines, medicines, development of low-cost indigenous technologies to test and treat, genomic surveillance, and capacity building for health care workers.

India is also proactively engaged in multilateral fora with the objective of strengthening and reforming the global health security architecture with WHO at its centre, it said.

PM Modi will deliver his remarks in the “Opening Session” of the summit on the theme – Preventing Pandemic Fatigue and Prioritizing Preparedness – the MEA said.

A second Global Covid-19 Summit will be held on 12 May, the White House and its partners had announced earlier, in an effort to bolster cooperation to end the pandemic and prepare for future health threats.The emergence and spread of new variants, like Omicron, have reinforced the need for a strategy aimed at controlling Covid-19 worldwide,” the White House had said in a news release with the Group of Seven and Group of 20 nations.

The summit will build on efforts and commitments made at the first global summit in September, including getting more people vaccinated, sending tests and treatments to highest-risk populations, expanding protections to health care workers and generating financing for pandemic preparedness.