The world enters the third year of the pandemic, equipped with vaccines, medicines and protocols. But there still is the inequity in vaccine distribution and uncertainty from an evolving SARS-CoV-2 virus and its variants, like the highly transmissible Omicron.

Trade, tourism and daily life have been derailed. Worryingly, several public health programmes and personal medical treatments have also been set back. World Health Organization chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus sums it up thus: 2021 has been a painful year. But 2022 must bring an end to the Covid-19 pandemic and begin something else — a new era of solidarity.

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