COVID-19 in the Arctic: Briefing Document for Senior Arctic Officials

Abstract

In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease a pandemic, bringing drastic changes to people’s lives overnight. Since then, Covid-19 has reminded the world of how vulnerable societies can be in the face of infectious diseases. The pandemic not only represents great risk to human health, it creates challenges for social, economic and cultural systems, despite the rapidly advancing global effort to develop countermeasures.