2019: COVID-19This photo taken on February 17, 2020 shows a man (L) who has displayed mild symptoms of the COVID-19 coronavirus using a laptop at an exhibition centre converted into a hospital in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province.
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On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization announced that the COVID-19 virus was officially a pandemic after barreling through 114 countries in three months and infecting over 118,000 people. And the spread wasn’t anywhere near finished.
COVID-19 is caused by a novel coronavirus, the family of viruses that includes the common flu and SARS. Symptoms include respiratory problems, fever, and cough, and can lead to pneumonia and death. Like SARS, it’s spread through droplets from sneezes.
The first reported case in China appeared November 17, 2019, in the Hubei Province, but went unrecognized. Eight more cases appeared in December with researchers pointing to an unknown virus.
Many learned about COVID-19-19 when ophthalmologist Dr. Li Wenliang defied government orders and released safety information to other doctors. The following day, China informed the WHO and charged Li with a crime. Li died from COVID-19 just over a month later.
Without a vaccine available, the virus spread beyond Chinese borders and by mid-March, it had spread globally to more than 163 countries. On February 11, the infection was officially christened COVID-19.
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