wearing a Covid-19 coronavirus-themed helmet takes part in an
awareness campaign at a market in New Delhi on November 25, 2020.
(Photo by Sajjad HUSSAIN / AFP)
From the first cases in central China to hopes of a
vaccine a year later, here are a dozen key developments in the
spread and subsequent fight against COVID-19.
First death
On December 31, 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) is
alerted to a cluster of pneumonia cases “of unknown cause” in the
central Chinese city of Wuhan.
On January 7, 2020 a new coronavirus is identified. Four days
later China announces its first death in Wuhan from an illness
which will be named COVID-19.
MEDU organization (Doctors for Human Rights) perform health checks
at the Tiburtina train station on November 25, 2020 in Rome, as
part of a MEDU mobile team series of free health checks. (Photo by
Tiziana FABI / AFP)
Wuhan cut off
On January 23 Wuhan is placed under quarantine and cut off from
the world. Countries start to repatriate their citizens from
China.
On February 15 France reports the first death confirmed
outside Asia, a Chinese tourist.
organization (Doctors for Human Rights) performs a temperature
scanning on a homeless man as doctors roam across the Tiburtina
train station on November 25, 2020 in Rome, as part of a MEDU
mobile team series of free health checks. (Photo by Tiziana FABI /
AFP)
‘Pandemic’
By March 6 more than 100,000 cases have been recorded around the
world.
Northern Italy is locked down, quickly followed by the rest of
the country.
On March 11, the WHO says COVID-19 is a pandemic.
Global stock markets crash.
Governments and central banks roll out massive economic support
measures.
courtyard of Albert Street Primary School during a break, in
Johannesburg CBD, on November 25, 2020. – The school was created 12
years ago to provide basic education to the children of asylum
seekers and refugees. Due the economic consequences of the COVID-19
coronavirus pandemic, the number of students hosted in the school
decreased from 168 to 50, creating a drastic reduction of staff.
The lack of basic services as electricity is also a challenge.
(Photo by LUCA SOLA / AFP)
Europe in lockdown
Spain (March 14) and France (March 17) order their populations
to stay at home. Germany and Britain say people should avoid all
social contact. The 27-nation European Union closes its external
borders.
for the now postponed Tokyo Olympics.
Olympics postponed
On March 24, the Tokyo summer Olympics scheduled for July 2020
are put off to the next year.
The next day the United Nations warns that the pandemic is
“threatening the whole of humanity”.
on the second day of a 14-day lockdown aimed at limiting the spread
of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Abuja, Nigeria on April 1,
2020. Photo: Sodiq Adelakun / Channels TV
Half of the world confined
Lockdown measures are enforced all around the world.
On April 2 more than 3.9 billion people — half of the world’s
population — are forced or called on to confine themselves,
according to an AFP count. The same day the threshold of one
million cases is crossed.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is infected and ends up in
intensive care.
Economy on its knees
On April 29 the battered US aircraft manufacturer Boeing slashes
16,000 jobs.
Many other groups including airlines and car manufacturers
follow.
taken on May 20, 2020 a bottle and pills of Hydroxychloroquine sit
on a counter at Rock Canyon Pharmacy in Provo, Utah. GEORGE FREY /
AFP
Hydroxychloroquine row
Backed by US President Donald Trump as a potential treatment for
COVID-19, malaria drug hydroxychloroquine is judged to have no
benefit in a study published in The Lancet on May 22.
The study is retracted due to problems with the data but on June
5 a British research group also concludes that the medicine did not
help COVID-19 patients at all.
taken on June 1, 2020 a health professional works at the Intensive
Care Unit (ICU) ward where patients infected with the COVID-19
novel coronavirus are being treated, at the Santa Casa hospital in
Belo Horizonte, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil.(Photo by Douglas
MAGNO / AFP)
Surge in Latin America
By June 7 the death toll reaches more than 400,000.
The surge of cases and deaths in Latin America causes
concern.
Brazil becomes the country with the second biggest death toll
after the United States. Its president Jair Bolsonaro calls it a
“little flu”, before himself becoming infected.
Fellow COVID-19 skeptic Donald Trump will also get it.
masks.
records with his phone during a football match for international
women’s day in Abuja on March 5, 2020. Photo: Sodiq Adelakun/
Channels TV mna
Masks and anti-masks
With cases on the increase, several European countries make
mask-wearing compulsory on public transport, in schools and shops
and on the street, starting with the Czech Republic on March
18.
Anti-mask demonstrations are organised in Berlin, London, Paris
and Rome.
Second wave
The grim milestone of a million deaths worldwide is passed on
September 28. In October infections start to spiral in Europe,
where many countries order new lockdowns and curfews.
The pandemic also picks up pace in the US, where its handling
has become a key issue in the presidential campaign.
studio in Paris on November 16, 2020, showing a syringe and a
vaccine vial with the reproduced logo of a US biotech firm Moderna,
illustrates the announcement of an experimental vaccine against
Covid-19 from Moderna that would be nearly 95% effective, marking a
second major step forward in the quest to end the Covid-19
pandemic. (Photo by JOEL SAGET / AFP)
Vaccine hopes
On November 9, US biotech giant Pfizer and its German partner
BioNTech unveil positive results of a vaccine, as the number of
official cases passes 50 million.
A week later a similar announcement comes from US firm Moderna,
with an AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine following fast
behind. Authorities hope to begin vaccination campaigns at the end
of the year in the US and parts of Europe.
Read more https://swordpress.com.ng/2020/11/26/covid-19-twelve-key-milestones-in-a-year-like-no-other/