At the end of December 2019, Chinese public health authorities reported several cases of acute respiratory syndrome in Wuhan City, Hubei province, China. Chinese scientists soon identified a novel coronavirus as the main causative agent. The disease is now referred to as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and the causative virus is called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). 

It is a new strain of coronavirus that has not been previously identified in humans.

The initial outbreak in Wuhan spread rapidly, affecting other parts of China.

The International Health Regulations (IHR) (2005) Emergency Committee on the outbreak of COVID-19 was first convened on 22‒23 January 2020, and subsequently reconvened on 30 January 2020.

PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY OF INTERNATIONAL CONCERN (PHEIC)

The WHO Director General declared the COVID-19 outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) on 30 January 2020.

The Emergency Committee provided recommendations to WHO, to China, to all countries and to the global community, on measures to control the outbreak.

PANDEMIC

On 11 March 2020. WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic because of the “alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction”. At that time, there were large outbreaks of the virus in Italy, South Korea, and the United States. In the US, the slow rollout of testing and limited testing capacity has crippled response to the disease. The declaration came after a 13-fold rise in the number of cases outside China in the two weeks prior to the declaration.