It was almost a year ago – Jan. 23, 2020, to be precise – that the city of Wuhan was locked down by the government of China in an effort to control the spread of a mysterious new virus that had killed its first person a few weeks earlier. By the end of the month, the world would be all too familiar with the name of this new coronavirus. A year of COVID-19 seems to have lasted a decade by now. And as winter hits its peak, new restrictions are being introduced in many parts of Canada in an effort to reduce the growing number of infections and deaths. Years from now, historians will look back at how COVID-19 impacted all aspects of society: not only the hundreds of thousands of people around the world who died, but the way it changed people's work, the impact on young children who had to learn their lessons from a video screen and even its effect on our national pastime as hockey players skated in empty arenas.

I know we’re tired of it all, but it’s important to stay informed about what has become the story of our lifetime. Our editors at The Conversation Canada are continually impressed by the story proposals about COVID-19 that we get from academics across the country. Last year, we published more than 500 stories about the pandemic that were read by millions of people around the world. For your weekend reading, I’ve assembled some of our best COVID-19 stories from the first few weeks of 2021 – both from Canada and from the global network of The Conversation.

Have a great weekend, stay safe and we’ll be back in your Inbox on Monday.