With more than 54 million infections worldwide, COVID-19 maintains an unstoppable pace as we are approaching one year of the first cases being detected, during which time around 1.3 million people have lost their lives.

The world as it was known before, the social and labor relations, and the economy suffered deep transformations all over the globe, while waiting for the discovery of one or several vaccines that will allow to control the situation.

According to data offered by the John Hopkins University last week, there was a record of 580 thousand infections in only 24 hours.

The United States continues to be the worst affected country with almost 11 million cases and nearly 250,000 fatalities.

Bill de Blasio, New York City’s mayor, announced to all parents that as of Monday, there will be another total closure of schools, which had partially opened their doors last September.

Europe is currently the site of a virulent outbreak, hence governments there are applying severe restrictions in spite of opposition from businessmen and the so-called "deniers.”

The region of Latin America and the Caribbean remains very affected by the pandemic, resulting in the most serious contraction of the economy in the last 100 years, which will increase poverty and unemployment, especially among women, youth and indigenous people.

Mexico surpassed the one million positive cases over the weekend and, according to data from the Ministry of Public Health, since October there has been a constant rise of between 5,000 and 6,000 infected people every day.

Another country seriously damaged by the coronavirus is Argentina, which on Saturday crossed the barrier of one million infections, with more than 35,000 dead.  The efforts of Alberto Fernandez's government have clashed with right wing sectors that oppose social isolation to stop the contagion.

The smallest Central American countries are living a very complex situation, reporting growing figures of cases and deaths from COVID-19; and yet these numbers might increase after the passage of the tropical storm Eta, which flooded and isolated several poor communities.

On top of that, Hurricane Iota is also approaching and could enter Nicaragua this Monday with a category four on the Saffir-Simpson scale, and then impact Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, rated among the poorest countries in the continent after Haiti.

One tragedy after another... and many lessons to be learned.