Late December of Wuhan City, China was in the preparation of welcoming and celebrating the New Year. All the wet markets were crowded for buying and selling of seafood. Everyone was in a chaotic but cheerful environment as it’s the beginning of New Year 2020.
New Year Eve: WHO was reported about an unknown outbreak of Coronavirus
On the 31st December, the World Health Organization was informed regarding a cluster of 41 patients having symptoms of mysterious Pneumonia by the health officials of China. Researches were done concluding the HUANAN SEAFOOD WHOLESALE MARKET as the epicenter of COVID-19 breakout.
1st day of New Year 2020: Locking down of Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market
On 1st January 2020, the Huanan Market was sealed off and all other wet markets were shutdown banning the buying, selling, and transportation of any wild animals in restaurants, markets within and across the country. The breeding farms and the transports used to shift the wildlife to wet markets were totally quarantined and shut down.
In no time, this situation became a pandemic spreading the virus to almost all the countries. The major symptoms were fever, cough, and severe difficulty of breathing.
Researchers believed even though the cluster of first 41 patients was notified, the virus might have spread way long before late December, probably during November as the incubation period was about 14 days. The large gathering in the market may have booster the rapid transmission of the virus. It was also summarized that the pigs, civets, pangolins, etc. were just the intermediary of the virus. The actual origin was from Bats.
7th January 2020: Identification of virus as Novel Coronavirus or not
Chinese Health officials identified the Coronavirus that causes the common cold, Pneumonia, and SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome).
11th January 2020: The first death due to Coronavirus was recorded by Chinese Health officials.
13th January 2020: The first case of Coronavirus reported in Thailand
The first case of Coronavirus in Thailand was a 61 years old female tourist who recently visited and spent her vacation in Wuhan, China.
15th January 2020: The first case of Coronavirus reported in the United States
This first case of Coronavirus in the US was a 35 years old man from Snohomish County, Washington. He landed at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on January 15 but he consulted at the health facility on January 19, after the symptoms were developed. On January 20, he was diagnosed with the Coronavirus.
23rd January 2020: Wuhan city under quarantine
The current population of Wuhan city was 11 million. Chinese health authorities immediately announced a strict quarantine of the entire city following that of the rest of the Hubei province days later resulting in a total of about 60 million residents. This was the largest quarantine in history.
30th January 2020: Declaration by World Health Organization "PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY OF INTERNATIONAL CONCERN"
This is the 6th Declaration by the World Health Organization for the international health safety concern as a state of emergency.
The previous 5 declarations were: Swine-flu pandemic in 2009, Ebola outbreak in South Africa in 2013, Polio in the war zones in 2014, Zika epidemic in 2016, and another ongoing of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 2018 till the present date.
2nd February 2020: The first case related to Coronavirus recorded in the Philippines.
7th February 2020: Dr. Li Wenliang expired at about 4 a.m. local time of 6th February 2020.
He was the whistleblower of novel coronavirus and gave a warning for the high possibility of the outbreak of a new virus but he was forced to sign a letter acknowledging that these were the "false comments". He caught the coronavirus while treating the patients who already were infected with the virus.
9th February 2020: Death tolls surpassed that of SARS (2002-2003)
The number of deaths crossed 774 people globally which was higher than the time of the SARS outbreak during 2002-2003. There is a sharing of about 80% genetic codes of SARS and new coronavirus, as they both fall under the same family of viruses.
According to the research, this Coronavirus killed almost three times as many people in the duration of eight weeks than SARS did in a period of eight months.
11th February 2020: Coronavirus named as COVID-19
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the name should be referring to the geographical location, an animal, an individual or a group of people, time, etc. So it was named COVID-19.
12th February 2020: Number of cases spiked up in South Korea.
In China, the number of cases was in the stabilizing phase while in South Korea, that was soaring high. A 61-years old female who was tagged as "Patient 31" was the index patient to spread the disease in South Korea. She refused to get tested despite there were symptoms. Since she is a member of the Shicheonji Church of Jesus, she was in contact with more than 1000 churchgoers.
19th February 2020: Outbreak alerted Iran confirming 18,400 confirmed cases for
Coronavirus.
Iran became the third most-affected country after China and Italy. Schools, Colleges, Offices, Shopping malls, Movie theaters, Cultural centers were immediately shut down.
The country also released about 54,000 prisoners to prevent the outbreaks in the prisons.
21st February 2020: Beginning of a spooky hike up of COVID-19 cases in Italy.
More than 110,000 people were infected and by the end of March, Italy becomes the country with the highest number of coronavirus cases. The death tolls crossed 13,100 in Italy as the highest death toll in the world.
23rd February 2020: South Korean President warned the situation as a "Grave turning point"
South Korea immediately implemented the widespread testing as started conducting more than 10,000 tests per day in drive-through testing clinics where the results can be known within 10 minutes.
29th February 2020: The first death from COVID-19 in the US
The first death in the US was a 50 years old man who had a history of chronic underlying health issues. He died at Evergreen Health Hospital, King County, Washington. The US then reported more than 13,000 confirmed cases of Coronavirus across all the 50 states and Washington DC. The main factors for rapid transmission are the population density and the cosmopolitan makeup.
The US declared as a state of medical emergency throughout US states.
3rd March 2020: Coronavirus cases started skyrocketing in Spain
By this date, Spain became the world's second-highest death toll which is more than 9,000 and nearly 100,000 confirmed cases throughout Spain.
WHO released the international community's STRATEGIC PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE PLAN in order to protect the states with weaker health systems.
4th March 2020: CDC removes the earlier restrictions for Coronavirus testing
CDC formally removes the earlier restrictions unless one has direct close contact with the confirmed coronavirus cases. Clinicians should now "use their own judgment to determine if the patient has the signs and symptoms and whether to be tested for COVID-19".
9th March 2020: Mass lockdown of about 60 million residents of Italy
All the schools, colleges, museums, offices, and other public venues were instantly shutdown. The entire nation was declared as the coronavirus restriction zone.
11th March 2020: WHO declared the outbreak of COVID-19 as PANDEMIC
The Geographic Spread of COVID-19, its severity, its causes, and its effect on the society, community, countries have petrified everyone. Hence, the director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared as "Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly" in a press briefing announcing the determination in Geneva on March 11, 2020.
In the US, Trump announced restrictions to travel from Europe to the US for 30 days. But the ban applies to foreign nationals and not American citizens and permanent residents who should be screened before entering the country.
13th March 2020: COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund launched
This funding program was launched to receive any sort of donations from private institutions or individuals, corporations, or organizations.
19th March 2020: China announced no new locally transmitted coronavirus cases for the first time after the start of the pandemic.
24th March 2020: Postponement of International Olympic
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan and President Thomas Bach of the International Olympic Committee agreed to postpone the International Olympics until 2021.
26th March 2020: The US becomes the leading country with 82,404 confirmed coronavirus cases.
The United States surpassed China's 81,782 confirmed coronavirus cases and that of Italy's 80,589. The fatality rate had doubled since the month of January.
1st April 2020: South Korea tested more than 420,000 people and 10,000 cases were nearly confirmed.
2nd April 2020: Spain reported the highest death tolls in a single day- 950 deaths.
10th April 2020: Globally, authorities have reported roughly 1,614,858 confirmed coronavirus cases with about being 1,155,530 active and ongoing cases, 362,537 roughly recoveries, and 96,791 deaths.
Which countries are on lockdown?
Almost all the countries have announced a situation of a lockdown or have banned traveling to any international territories. At present, the majority of countries in Europe are under strict lockdown. Likewise, India, Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan, etc. from Asia are also following the strict lockdown policy.
Is Europe still struggling to control the situation?
The unbelievable shoot up in the cases and deaths in Europe is shocking. Italy has been one of the countries that reported the highest death tolls. So far, the condition is getting under control after implementing strict social distancing resulting in slowing infection rate.
Author: Step On Himalaya
Date: 3rd April, 2020
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