Wealthy nations must share more resources or risk crisis for billions, warns UN chief

Antonio Guterres says unequal access to Covid vaccines and affordable loans in developing countries will widen inequality

The head of the UN has called on rich countries to step up efforts to protect workers hit by the Covid-19 pandemic with an additional $1tn (736bn) injection of funds to avoid a twin-track recovery that widens the gap with the world's poorest nations.

Speaking in New York, the secretary general of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, said the most serious global public health and economic crisis the world has faced in the past century was on course to worsen existing inequalities and threaten the long-term livelihoods and well-being of hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people" without a greater determination by rich nations to share resources.