A two-day special session of U.N. General Assembly begins today. The session will focus on the response to COVID-19 and the best path to recovery from the pandemic which has claimed 1.5 million lives and shattered economies.

Assembly President Volkan Bozkir said yesterday that it will provide a historic moment for us to come together to beat COVID-19. He added that with news of multiple vaccines on the cusp of approval, and with trillions of dollars flowing into global recovery efforts, the international community has a unique opportunity to do this right.

Leaders and ministers from over 140 countries will deliver pre-recorded speeches today after an in-person opening in the General Assembly including speeches by Assembly President Bozkir and UN Secretay General, Antonio Guterres.

Among the leaders slated to address the session are French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, and European Union chief Charles Michel. The United States will be represented by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.

The second day of the session will focus on three virtual panels, the first on the U.N.'s response to COVID-19 and the second on vaccines that will include representatives from producers BioNTech and Oxford University-AstraZeneca, and the World Health Organization's ACT-Accelerator which is working to get vaccines to the world's poorest people.