The United Nations on Tuesday cancelled all in-person meetings for this week after a U.N. member nation reported five cases of COVID-19 among its staff.

As of Friday, the treaty had 49 signatories, and the United Nations said the 50th ratification from Honduras had been received.

Among the countries that backed the statement were half a dozen that face sanctions by the United States, European Union or other Western nations including Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Russia, Syria and Venezuela.

Addressing the U.N. General Assembly, the country's ambassador said the "anti-epidemic situation in our country is now under safe and stable control" as a result of measures taken to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Most urgently, the country needs the international community's support to rebuild its economy and its destroyed port.

Kept apart by a devastating pandemic and dispersed across the globe, world leaders convened electronically Tuesday for an unprecedented high-level meeting.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ appeal for a revival of multilateralism — the foundation of the United Nations — was echoed by leaders of countries large and small, rich and poor.

The United States faces defeat in its move to reimpose U.N. sanctions on Tehran, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised speech on Sunday, as Washington declared all U.N. sanctions on Iran had been restored.

The new president of the U.N. General Assembly warned Tuesday that unilateralism will only strengthen the COVID-19 pandemic and called for a new commitment to global co-operation, including on the fair and equitable distribution of vaccines.

A legal scholar appointed by the UN said the economic downturn resulting from the pandemic is unprecedented in times of peace since the Great Depression in the 1930s.