The horrors of the year 2020 are still fresh in the minds of billions of people across the world. That was the time when the entire world came to a standstill, leaving governments unable to figure out how to contain a novel coronavirus whose danger levels were unprecedented. According to data released by Statista, around 6.86 million died due to the coronavirus globally as of May 2023. 

On Sunday (Dec 24), the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a new Covid-19 epidemiological update on the global and regional situation with information on hospitalizations, ICU admissions, updates on the variants of interest and variants under monitoring, It said: the number of new Covid-19 cases has increased by 52 per cent during the 28-day period of November 20 to December 17, 2023 as compared to the previous 28-day period, with over 850,000 new cases reported.