World Health Organization (WHO), a wing of the United Nations strives to achieve, 'better health for everyone, everywhere' and it was established on April 7, 1948. The primary function of WHO is to look after the international public health. WHO was alerted on December 31, 2019 about the mysterious and suspected pneumonia induced cases in the Chinese City of Wuhan.
What happened afterwards?
China confirmed first death on January 11 and the new coronavirus disease was named as Covid-19. After the disease was known, the Wuhan was quarantined and cut off from the world on January 23. France reported its first case and death of a person outside Asia in February last year.
1 lakh cases were reported by March 6 and Italy was worse hit. Covid-19 was declared as a pandemic by March 11.
Lockdown in Europe:
The Europe was put under lockdown. Spain and France told their people to stay indoors on March 14 and March 17 respectively. Europe closes its borders for all its 27 nations.
Olympic games were postponed on March 24. The games were scheduled for July 2020.
Lockdown across the globe:
The WHO made a statement that the pandemic threatened human lives. 3.9 billion people were told to stay indoors after the lockdown by April 2, 2020. According to AFP, it crossed 1 million cases. British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson was infected.
Economy dwindled:
Boeing aircraft of US slashes 16,000 jobs on April 19. US President Donald Trump backed Hydroxychloroquine as a potential Covid-19 treatment. He demanded the Hydroxychloroquine from India. British scientist rejected Trump's claims.
Global death toll:
The death toll in the world reaches historic 400,000 mark by June 7, 2020. US topped the list followed by Brazil. Brazil's President got infected by the virus despite calling it a 'little flu.' Another historic mark was achieved when the death toll rose to over 1 million people by September 28.
Mask-Unmask:
Wearing masks became a norm. However, anti-mask demonstrations were organized in Rome, Paris and London.
New variants:
New variant detected in Europe in September. It was termed as more infectious than the previous one. New lockdown was announced in UK by PM Johnson on January 4.
WHO called it a 'tipping point of the pandemic' and terms the new variants as 'alarming' on January 7.
Vaccinations to the rescue:
US Biotech giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech say they have a highly successful vaccine on November 9. Similar announcements came from US firm Moderna, followed by Oxford-Astra Zeneca vaccine.
Britain approved vaccines and became the first country to roll out nationwide vaccination program.
Sputnik-V of Russia and China's Sinopharm and Sinovac also rolled out but didn't receive full approval.
2 Million deaths worldwide:
Now, globally two million deaths were reported on January 15,, 2021.