Although vaccine approvals at the end of the 2020 raised hopes of a turnaround in the pandemic, most countries have still not managed to accelerate the pace of inoculation because of supply shortages, vaccine skepticism, bureaucracy and logistical obstacles.

Lockdown brings a country's economy to its knees because it leads to business closures, skyrocketing unemployment, plummeting financial markets, decreasing investments, and slashed consumption, thus generating huge economic fallout.Īfter a decrease of cases during the summer of 2020, the world began to understand that the battle against COVID-19 was going to be hard, when a devastating second wave of infection begin to hit most countries in October 2020, as the virus evolved into new, more contagious variants. These policies come with tremendous economic and social costs for society worldwide. Under the threat of an unknown virus that endangers the lives of citizens, restrictive measures that limit the transmissibility, such as lockdown, are seen as the only means to curb death tolls and prevent healthcare disasters. After more than a year since the beginning of the health emergency, the virus continues to be a threat for most countries worldwide as more contagious variants cause new, more intense waves of infection, and as death tolls rise. In December 2019 the world first encountered the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by a new virus classified as ‘severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2′ (SARS-CoV-2).

Italy lockdown february 2020