Priorities for a fair recovery from COVID-19 in Latin America

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared that the COVID-19 outbreak could be characterised as a pandemic. Since then, Latin American countries have worked to mitigate the spread of the virus and curb contagions. Though the region was home to just 8% of the world’s population in 2020, it accounted for 19% of cumulative COVID-19 infections and 28% of deaths as of December 2020 (United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean [ECLAC], 2021).