About a year ago, the WHO declared public health emergency of international concern over the outbreak of the COVID-19. So far, the pandemic has infected more than 105 million people worldwide. As per the latest IMF World Economic Outlook, vaccine approvals have raised hopes of a turnaround in the pandemic. However, the surge of new variants of the virus, as well as new waves of the pandemic, pose concerns for the outlook. Under this uncertain scenario, the global economy is projected to grow 5.5% in 2021.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shut down economies all over the world, and it has infected more than 102 million people worldwide. More than one-quarter of the cases have been identified in the US.

Global COVID-19 cases surpassed 97.8 million. The global death toll recently surpassed 2.12 million people. The worst affected country is the US, followed by India and Brazil. In the Americas, there are more than 43.7 million confirmed cases, over 32 million in Europe, more than 12.6 million in South-East Asia, and over 2.4 million in Africa.

The newest edition of the INC Academia is set to begin next month, February 2021.