The novel coronavirus, COVID-19, has so far infected nearly 200,000 worldwide. The first time the world heard about this virus was on 31 January 2019, since then schools, businesses, and churches have closed worldwide. The World Health Organization is recommending that we all practice social distancing and stay in our homes as much as possible. The world has changed very much in these last 11 weeks, and we are being urged to prepare for many more weeks as we all work together to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Here is an overview of the spread of COVID-19. We will continue to update this document as more information becomes available.

• November 17, 2019 – First confirmed case of someone suffering from coronavirus in China, according to local reports.
• December 8, 2019 – First patient to show symptoms of coronavirus according to Chinese officials.
• December 31, 2019 – WHO received first reports of a “pneumonia of unknown cause” in Wuhan, China.
• January 3 – Number of infections in Wuhan exceeded 40.
• January 7 – WHO announced they had identified a new virus, named 2019-nCoV.
• January 11 – China announced its first death from the virus, death occurred on January 9.
• January 13 – the WHO reported a case in Thailand, the first outside of China.
• January 16 – Japan reported a case from a man that had arrived from Wuhan.
• January 17 – Second death reported from Wuhan prompted the US to start screen passengers coming from Wuhan.
• January 20 – China reported a third death and more than 200 infections.
• First case in the US.
• January 22 – Death toll in China reached 17 with more than 550 infections.
• January 23 – Wuhan and surrounding area was placed in quarantine, approximately 18 million people.
• January 30 – World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a Global Health Emergency.
  CDC confirmed the first US case of human to human transmission.
• January 31 – The US declares Coronavirus a Public Health Emergency – Issues 14 day quarantine to US citizens returning from China and denies entry to any foreigner that has traveled to China within last two weeks.
• February 2 – death in the Philippines marked first death outside of China
• February 6 – Death of Dr Li, the Chinese doctor who was among the first to sound the alarm about the virus before being detained by the Chinese government for spreading rumors.
• February 8 – 813 deaths worldwide, surpassed final death toll of the SARS virus.
  First American to die of coronavirus in Wuhan.
• February 11 – Coronavirus officially named COVID -19
• February 14 – First case in Africa is in Egypt.
• February 15 – First death in Europe and outside of Asia occurred in France.
• February 21 – First death in Italy. Experts indicate this could be a possible pandemic.
• February 23 – South Korea raised alert level to Maximum.
• February 25 – First case in Brazil
• February 28 – WHO raises global risk from COVID-19 to the highest level of alert
  First case in New Zealand.
  First case in Nigeria.
  First case in Mexico.
  CDC issues travel warning to Italy
• February 29 – First death in the United States
• March 3 – First case in South Africa
• March 4 – Total number of COVID-19 cases worldwide tops 100,000.
• March 9 – All of Italy in emergency lock down.
• March 11 – WHO declares coronavirus a Pandemic
  US bans all travel from Europe to the United States
• March 12 – Many states in the US and other countries begin closing schools and universities for at least 2 weeks.
  First death in India
  NBA suspends its season indefinitely
• March 13 – US declares National Emergency
  Many nations close borders entirely.
  Epicenter is essentially Europe as more new cases reported than height of epidemic in China.
  At around 6 pm, there were 1992 infections in the US and 145,336 infections worldwide.
• March 14 – Italy declares they are “close to the point of no return for intensive care beds.”
  US Congress passes Aid Package that provides for free coronavirus testing and paid sick leave.
• 83 state and local labs in 50 states have working tests. US also granted emergency authorization for Roche Holdings to release its automated test.
• March 15 – States in the US starting to close bars, restaurants, non-critical business and places of worship.
  UK states that residents 70+ prepare to be home for up to 4 months.
  Newborn tests positive for COVID-19 just minutes after being born to a mother also infected.
• March 16 – President Trump releases new guidelines – urges Americans to stay home, avoid all non-essential contact/travel, stop going to restaurants, no social gatherings of more than 10 people and schools are urged to close.
  WHO urges all nations to continue to test and try to contain the virus.
  1st case in Greenland
  4,598 infections in the US, we continue to double every three days.
  182,282 infections worldwide, an increase of 37,000 in three days.
  COVID-19 vaccine candidates started the clinical trials in Seattle.