-
Identification of the virus
On January 7, officials announced they had identified a new virus, according to the WHO. The novel virus was named 2019-nCoV and was identified as belonging to the coronavirus family, which includes SARS and the common cold. -
First cases
China alerted WHO to several cases of unusual pneumonia in Wuhan, a port city of 11 million people in the central Hubei province. The virus was unknown. -
First thoughts of what was the virus
On January 5, Chinese officials ruled out the possibility that this was a recurrence of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) -
First case out of China
The first case outside China was identified in Thailand. -
First death of Covid-19
On January 13 China announced its first death -
The virus started to spread
On January 20, China reported a third death and more than 200 infections, with cases also reported outside Hubei province including in the capital Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. -
Bigger concern
On January 22, the death toll in China jumped to 17 with more than 550 infections. Many European airports stepped up checks on flights from Wuhan. -
Measures taken
On January 25, travel restrictions were imposed on a further five cities in Hubei, taking the overall number of people affected to 56 million. -
Mexico
Mexico got infected -
Africa
Egypt got infected