BERLIN — COVID-19 is the focus of the World Health Summit 2020, which begins on Sunday. Among the high-profile speakers at the three-day global health meeting are President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, UN Secretary-General António Guterres and virologist Christian Drosten. Due to the worsening COVID-19 situation, the World Health Summit 2020 will take place as a purely digital format, all sessions are exclusively online. "The way out of the pandemic is through fair access to a vaccine for all people —everywhere," said President Steinmeier, opening speaker of the World Health Summit in the forefront of the international meeting. Further speakers at the opening event on Sunday include EU Commission President von der Leyen, UN Secretary-General Guterres and WHO Director-General Tedros. All other 50 sessions will also be broadcast live digitally: The individual Zoom links are available cost-free. During all sessions, questions can be asked via the Zoom Q&A function, video and audio can be used on request. Central topics of the World Health Summit 2020: Latest findings on COVID-19, new global strategies for pandemic prevention and control, the role of Europe and the WHO in global health. The World Health Summit is one of the world"s most important strategic meetings on global health and brings together leading international scientists, politicians, and representatives from industry and civil society. The forum was founded in 2009 to mark the 300th anniversary of the Charité and is under the patronage of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, European Commission President von der Leyen and Ghebreyesus. — SG