COVID-19 timeline

Dec 31, 2019: Chinese Health officials inform the WHO about a cluster of 41 patients with a mysterious pneumonia. Most are connected to Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market.

Jan 1, 2020: Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market closes.

Jan 7, 2020: Chinese authorities identify a new type of coronavirus (called novel coronavirus or nCoV.

Jan 11, 2020: China records it's 1st death.

Jan 13, 2020: First coronavirus case outside of China is reported in Thailand.

Jan 20, 2020: First US case is reported: A 35-year-old man in Snohomish Country, Washington.

Jan 23, 2020: Wuhan is placed under quarantine, Hubei province follows within days.

Feb 2, 2020: First death outside China is recorded in the Philippines.

Feb 7, 2020: Chinese whistle-blower Li Wenliang dies.

Feb 8, 2020: US citizen dies in Wuhan – first death of an American citizen.

Feb 9, 2020: Death toll in China surpasses that of the 2002-2003 SARS epidemic, with 811 deaths recorded.

Feb 11, 2020: WHO announces that the new coronavirus disease will be called “COVID-19.”

Feb 12, 2020: Coronavirus cases start to spike in South Korea.

Feb 19, 2020: Iran outbreak begins.

Feb 21, 2020: Italy outbreak begins.

Feb 29, 2020: US reports first death on American soil.

Mar 3, 2020: Coronavirus cases begin to sharply increase in Spain, marking the start of it's outbreak.

Mar 8, 2020: Italy places all 60 million residents on lock down.

Mar 11, 2020: WHO declares the outbreak a pandemic.

Mar 13, 2020: A US national emergency is declared over the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Mar 17, 2020: A leaked federal plan warns the new coronavirus pandemic “will last 18 months or longer” and may come in “multiple waves” or infections.

Mar 19, 2020: China reports no new locally spread infections for the first time since the pandemic began.

Mar 23, 2020: New York City confirms 21,000 cases, making it the biggest epicentre of the outbreak in the US.

Mar 26, 2020: Total confirmed cases in the US reach 82,404 – the highest in the world – surpassing China's 81,782 and Italy's 80,589.

Mar 31, 2020: More than 1/3 of humanity is under some form of lock down.

Apr 2, 2020: The world passes 1 million COVID-19 infections.

Apr 7, 2020: Roughly 75% of all Americans are under lock-down, as 42 states issue stay-at-home orders.

Apr 10, 2020: The global death toll surpasses 100,000.

Apr 11, 2020: The number of Americans that file for unemployment since mid-March hits 22 million.

Apr 15, 2020: The number of global COVID-19 cases surpasses 2 million.

Apr 20, 2020: US protesters hold anti-lock-down rallies, despite the executive branch's official guidance to practise social distancing.

Apr 21, 2020: A person in California is found to have died from COVID-9 on Feb 6 – three weeks earlier than what authorities figured was the first American pandemic death.

Apr 22, 2020: US reports the highest single-day death toll for any country: more than 2,600.

Apr 23, 2020: Globally, authorities report roughly 2.7 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, with about 1.8 million being active and ongoing cases, roughly 730,000 recoveries, and 187,000 deaths.