November 17

A 55-year-old in China’s central Hubei province is the first known person to contract the disease COVID-19 caused by the new coronavirus (according to Chinese government data revealed in March 2020).

December 8

Date established by the World Health Organization (WHO) of the first confirmed case of COVID-19 reported by Chinese authorities. An analysis of the first 41 patients found 27 had direct exposure to a Wuhan seafood market, although this case did not.

December 27

Hubei provincial doctor Zhang Jixian tells China’s health authorities the disease is caused by a new coronavirus. A government doctor later reveals more than 180 had been infected at the time, although doctors may not have known it yet.

December 30

Ai Fen, a director at Wuhan Central Hospital, shares a photo of the lab results of a patient, circling the words “Sars coronavirus.” The hospital reprimands her.

Another doctor at the hospital, Li Wenliang, also shares the photo in a message to fellow doctors urging them to protect themselves from infection. Authorities summon the 33-year-old ophthalmologist and accuse him of “spreading rumors” and “making false comments.” He persists, saying, “A healthy society should not have just one voice.”

December 31

Hubei officials report a cluster of 27 pneumonia cases of unknown etiology to the World Health Organization’s China office, but claim no evidence of any “obvious human-to-human transmission.” Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control alerts WHO about its suspicion the new virus could be spread between humans and asks the organization to investigate. Ignored, Taiwan begins taking the temperature of travelers returning from Wuhan.

January 1

Wuhan Public Security Bureau calls in Li and seven other whistleblowers for spreading “rumors.”

January 5

The WHO publishes its first disease outbreak bulletin on “pneumonia of unknown cause” to alert the scientific and public health community.

January 7

President Xi Jinping gives instruction on the virus response to top leaders, according to Communist Party journal Qiushi, yet takes no action for two weeks.

January 10

Wuhan doctor Li Wenliang begins to show symptoms of the coronavirus and is later hospitalized.

China shares the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus for countries to use in developing specific diagnostic kits.

January 11

Chinese state media report the first known death due to the virus.

The National Institutes of Health Vaccine Research Center meets and three days later officially begins developing a COVID-19 vaccine.

January 13-20

Thailand, Japan, and South Korea report their first lab-confirmed cases of the new coronavirus.

January 14

In a confidential teleconference with provincial health officials, the head of China’s National Health Commission, Ma Xiaowei, lays out a grim assessment of the coronavirus epidemic with instructions from top officials, including President Xi Jinping. An accompanying memo says clustered cases “suggest human-to-human transmission is possible.”

January 18

Approximately 40,000 families attend a Chinese New Year banquet in Wuhan as the government continues to stress the virus can’t be transmitted between people.

January 20

A Washington state resident in his 30s, recently returned from Wuhan, tests positive for the coronavirus, believed to be the first known case in the United States.

Renowned Chinese epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan says in a TV interview the coronavirus does spread through human contact. President Xi Jinping makes his first public statement on the virus, saying the outbreak “must be taken seriously.”

January 23

Officials place Wuhan under quarantine with rail and air services suspended.

January 28

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a meeting with President Xi praises China for “setting a new standard for outbreak control” and for its “openness to sharing information.”

January 31

The Trump administration declares a public health emergency for the entire United States. “The risk of infection for Americans remains low,” says HHS Secretary Alex Azar, “we are working to keep the risk low.”

February 2

The United States denies entry to foreign nationals (other than immediate family of U.S. citizens and permanent residents) who have traveled in China. Those entering face health screening and up to 14 days in self-quarantine.

China completes and opens two temporary hospitals in Wuhan, providing 2,600 additional beds to treat coronavirus patients. Officials report the outbreak in the city of 11 million has killed 213 people and infected 10,000.

February 5

More than 3,600 passengers are quarantined on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan, as passengers test positive.

February 6

Patricia Dowd, a 57-year-old Silicon Valley auditor, dies abruptly, and tissue samples later confirm she had COVID-19, likely the first U.S. fatality.

February 7

Wuhan doctor Li Wenliang dies, causing an unprecedented outpouring of grief and anger on Chinese social media. In an interview with The New York Times the week before, he said that patients in Wuhan already were treated under quarantine in December and that officials should have been more open. He hoped to recover in 15 days and “join medical workers in fighting the epidemic.”

February 14

France announces the first European death due to COVID-19.

February 19

China expels three Wall Street Journal reporters, citing the paper’s editorial coverage of the coronavirus.

February 20

A 38-year-old Unilever worker in Italy’s Lombardy region tests positive for the coronavirus, becoming Patient No. 1 in its outbreak.

A surge in cases in South Korea is linked to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu.

February 21

Parliamentary elections in Iran send 24,500 voters to polling stations nationwide to select candidates handpicked by the country’s ruling council of ayatollahs amid increasing reports of a coronavirus outbreak.

February 23

Italy begins a lockdown of 11 towns in the north, isolating 50,000 people from the outside world.

February 24

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tours Chinatown businesses in San Francisco to prop slumping trade, telling crowds there, “We think it’s very safe to be in Chinatown, and hope that others will come.”

Iraq reports its first detected case of the coronavirus, a religious studies student from Iran, and closes its border with Iran before moving to close schools, ban large gatherings, and ban travel from hot-spot countries.

February 25

Iran’s deputy health minister tests positive for the coronavirus, appearing visibly ill at a press conference the day before, where he denies Iran’s covering up its outbreak.

With mounting concern about China’s response to the disease, WHO COVID-19 coordinator Bruce Aylward says, “If I had COVID-19, I’d want to be treated in China.”

February 28

President Donald Trump at a rally in Charleston, S.C., accuses Democrats of “politicizing the coronavirus” and calls attacks on his handling of the situation “their new hoax.” Trump downplays the new virus compared with the flu, saying “so far we have lost nobody” and “we are totally prepared.”

February 29

The FDA rolls back restrictions for U.S. public and private laboratories to manufacture coronavirus test kits. Health officials across the United States struggle to get tests to those who need them.

March 5

South Africa confirms its first case of the coronavirus, a 38-year-old man who returned from Italy with his wife.

March 9

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio downplays the coronavirus’s transmissibility, especially in crowds, and says the city didn’t plan on closing schools: “Is it anywhere near to where we are now? No.”

March 10

“Testing has gone very well,” Trump tells lawmakers on Capitol Hill. But records reveal that while more than 10,000 people per day are tested in South Korea, fewer than 15,000 tests in total have taken place in the United States.

March 11

With more than 118,000 cases in 114 countries, and nearly 4,300 deaths due to COVID-19, the WHO declares the disease a pandemic.

The National Basketball Association suspends its entire season after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tests positive for the coronavirus. Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, Major League Soccer, and other leagues all follow the next day.

In the second prime-time Oval Office speech of his term, President Trump announces a 30-day ban on travel by foreign nationals from 26 nations in Europe, later expanded to include the United Kingdom and Ireland. The president’s misstatement of his order, “suspending all travel from Europe,” prompts Americans overseas to rush airports needlessly and creates confusion in the cargo industry.

With three COVID-19 deaths, Lebanon closes its borders to allies Syria and Iran, plus other countries with outbreaks.

March 12

The Islamic State releases an advisory, stressing hygiene and warning ISIS followers to avoid “entering the land of the epidemic” and saying diseases “do not spread on their own but only with God’s command.”

March 13

“The next eight weeks are critical,” says President Trump, formally declaring a national emergency in a Rose Garden speech. The order opens access to $50 billion in aid to states, asks hospitals to activate emergency preparedness plans, and waives laws to allow telehealth and other critical healthcare responses. New restrictions limit flight arrivals of U.S. citizens to 13 U.S. airports.

March 16

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine halts his state’s presidential primary elections hours before they are to begin the next day. Ohio conducts its primaries by mail.

March 17

U.S.-based relief group Samaritan’s Purse flies a temporary 68-bed respiratory care field hospital to Cremona, Italy, as the country’s cases surge in one month from three to 31,500.

China expels 13 American journalists working for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post in retaliation for the Trump administration limiting the number of Chinese nationals working at state-owned Chinese media in the United States.

March 19

Italy surpasses China in the official number of COVID-19 deaths, as its death toll reaches 3,405.

The U.S. State Department issues a Level 4 “do not travel” advisory, the highest it can issue, recommending that U.S. citizens avoid any global travel. The EU also moves to close its borders to travel from outsiders.

March 20

Seven Christian prisoners in Iran are among 85,000 prisoners released to quell the country’s coronavirus spread, as reported cases reach 20,000. Officials also release American Michael White, detained since 2018.

A Belgian seismologist reports global shutdowns led to a 30 percent drop in seismic activity.

March 25

India begins the world’s most extensive coronavirus lockdown, ordering 1.3 billion people across the country to stay home for three weeks. On April 15, the government extends the lockdown into mid-May.

Spain surpasses China in reported nationwide deaths, becoming second only to Italy with 3,434 fatalities.

March 26

Church leaders in Italy and Spain gather in an online forum to warn American counterparts on the COVID-19 threat to congregations: “If I can say anything to you, do not, do not, abuse the fact that you need to be isolated—especially the pastors. We have many of our pastors in the hospital on respirators.”

China halts international flights and suspends the arrival of nearly all foreigners. In Wuhan, relatives of the dead wait in long lines at local funeral homes to collect ashes, suggesting Wuhan’s official death toll of 2,500 is an undercount.

March 27

President Donald Trump signs the CARES Act, a $2 trillion economic aid bill Congress passed the same day, sending money to small businesses, nonprofits, churches, and individuals.

March 28

Italy surpasses China in the number of reported coronavirus infections—86,498 cases. Italy trails the United States—at 104,837 confirmed cases.

March 29

Samaritan’s Purse rushes a tent hospital to New York City, erecting the facility in Central Park with local church volunteers in conjunction with Mount Sinai Hospital.

April 1

The pandemic enters another month, with nine-tenths of the world’s population, or 7.1 billion people, living in countries with some border restrictions, while roughly 3 billion people live in countries with borders completely closed to noncitizens and nonresidents.

Spain records its deadliest day of outbreak with 864 new fatalities in 24 hours. The country’s total number of confirmed cases tops 100,000. The next day, Spain’s death toll tops 10,000, and the country becomes the second in the world to reach the milestone officially. Only Italy has more recorded deaths at 13,555.

April 3

The CDC recommends Americans wear masks in public.

April 5

The New York Fire Department reports 241 New Yorkers die at home, part of a 400 percent increase over 2019 in the daily number of at-home deaths recorded—and potentially tied to COVID-19—from mid-March to mid-April.

April 7

Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, suffering with COVID-19, is moved to the ICU as his condition worsens. He is released from ICU on April 25 and returns to work on April 27.

Wisconsin’s primary gets underway as planned, after the state’s Supreme Court overturned Gov. Tony Evers’ order postponing the election for two months.

April 8

Wuhan ends its lockdown after the city reports only three new cases in the past three weeks.

April 9

The U.S. Federal Reserve announces a multitrillion-dollar expansion of its direct lending programs, the first since the 1930s, aimed at midsize businesses crippled by the economic shutdown.

April 11

The United States surpasses Italy with the highest reported coronavirus toll, recording more than 20,000 deaths.

April 15

President Trump places a hold on U.S. funding to the WHO pending investigation of its “mismanagement” of the pandemic, saying the UN body “parroted” Chinese claims the new coronavirus was not spreading between humans.

South Korea, with more than 10,500 cases, holds parliamentary elections. Authorities implement strict safety measures, and voter turnout is the highest in more than two decades.

April 17

In a series of tweets, President Trump fans state-level protests just one day after issuing guidance that deferred reopening decisions to states. “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!” and similar calls to liberate Minnesota and Michigan drew condemnation from state governors trying to curtail outbreaks.

April 20

A futures contract for West Texas Intermediate, the main U.S. crude oil benchmark, for the first time on record falls below zero dollars in value, crashing stock market indexes, as petroleum storage facilities remain full and global demand for oil is low.

The United States, Mexico, and Canada extend restrictions on nonessential travel across their shared borders for an additional 30 days.

India loosens its stay-at-home restrictions, despite a spike in coronavirus cases, which surpass 17,000 with 543 dead.

April 22

A Palestine woman from Syria tests positive for the virus in Lebanon, the first recorded case in a refugee camp.

President Trump signs an executive order suspending immigration, blocking the issuance of green cards, and prohibiting green-card holders from reuniting with spouses abroad.

April 24

Niger reports a new polio outbreak, but the WHO says a vaccination campaign is not possible due to the pandemic.

April 26

The U.S. Supreme Court declines a request to temporarily halt a Trump administration directive making it harder for legal immigrants to become permanent residents if they use public benefits. Four states petitioned for such residents to access assistance due to the virus.

Maryland health officials field “hundreds” of inquiries, says Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, after President Trump suggested in a White House briefing days earlier that injecting disinfectants could be a possible treatment for COVID-19. (Trump later said he was “asking questions sarcastically.”)

April 28

Hospitals and morgues in Brazil reach a breaking point as the new coronavirus epicenter surpasses 67,000 confirmed cases with more than 4,600 deaths.

In a rare joint flyover, U.S. Navy Blue Angels and Air Force Thunderbirds take to the skies from New York to Philadelphia in a salute to medical and other front-line workers.

The number of COVID-19 cases in the United States tops 1 million—one-third of all cases in the world. With a death toll of 58,365, more American lives have been lost to the pandemic in just three months than in all two decades of the Vietnam War.