Extract
In December 2019, the world woke up to the harrowing news of an outbreak of a deadly virus that was eventually called Covid-19. This moment marked an important crisis point in the twenty-first century, as the virus spread rapidly around the world and led the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January 2020. WHO later classified the outbreak as a pandemic on 11 March 2020,1 And drastic public health measures for containing the infection were required to quell the spread. As at 19 July 2023, a total of 768 237 788 cases of Covid-19 have been reported and 6 952 677 deaths.2