COVID-19 Timeline

A timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic (Last updated 2020-04-09)

  • April 9, 2020 – Total confirmed COVID-19 cases in the world 1 506 936, total deaths world wide 89 931, number of deaths in Sweden are now 793. (4
    MARCH 2020
  • March 31, 2020 – Total confirmed COVID-19 cases in the world 809 608, total deaths world wide 39 545, number of deaths in Sweden are now 180(4
  • March 26, 2020 – US Senate passes $2 trillion COVID-19 aid package. (3
  • March 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.
  • March 26, 2020 – Roughly 1 in 2 Americans go on lockdown as 22 states issue stay-at-home orders.
  • March 23, 2020 – New York City confirms 21,000 cases, making it the biggest epicenter of the outbreak in the US.
  • March 22, 2020 – About 1 in 3 Americans are under lockdown as 12 states issue stay-at-home orders.
  • March 21, 2020 – Unemployment insurance claims rose by over 3M from March 7-21, reaching their highest level yet. (2)
  • March 20-21, 2020 – Italy reports the two highest single-day death tolls for any country: 627 on March 20 and 793 on March 21.
  • March 11, 2020 [SWE]Sweden records its first death.  
  • March 8, 2020 – Italy places all 60 million residents on lockdown.
    FEBRUARY 2020
  • February 29, 2020US reports first death on American soil.
  • February 21, 2020Italy outbreak begins. 
  • February 19, 2020Iran outbreak begins. 
  • February 12, 2020Coronavirus cases start to spike in South Korea.
  • February 11, 2020 [WHOWHO announces that the new coronavirus disease will be called “COVID-19.”
  • February 9, 2020Death toll in China surpasses that of the 2002-2003 SARS epidemic, with 811 deaths recorded.
  • February 7, 2020Chinese whistleblower Li Wenliang dies.
  • February 2, 2020First death outside China is recorded in the Philippines.
    JANUARY 2020 
  • January 31, 2020President Trump bans foreign nationals from entering the US if they were in China within the prior two weeks.
  • January 31, 2020 [SWE]First confirmed COVID-19 case in Sweden, a 20-something woman who traveled home from Wuhan.   
  • January 30, 2020 [WHO]WHO declares a global public-health emergency. 
  • January 23, 2020Wuhan is placed under quarantine, Hubei province follows within days.
  • January 20, 2020First US case is reported: a 35-year-old man in Snohomish County, Washington.
  • January 13, 2020First coronavirus case outside of China is reported in Thailand.
  • January 12, 2020China shared the genetic sequence of COVID-19. (6)
  • January 11, 2020China records its first death.
  • January 7, 2020Chinese authorities identify a new type of coronavirus (called novel coronavirus or nCoV). 
  • January 1, 2020Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market close
  • January 1, 2020 [WHOSets up the IMST (Incident Management Support Team) across the three levels of the organization: headquarters, regional headquarters and country level, putting the organization on an emergency footing for dealing with the outbreak. (6)
    DECEMBER 2019
  • December 31, 2019Chinese Health officials inform the WHO about a cluster of 41 patients with a mysterious pneumonia. Most are connected to Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market.

Sources: 

  1. Business Insider
  2. Visual Capitalist
  3. BBC
  4. John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center
  5. FHM
  6. WHO