The key events during the covid-19 pandemic

Health

Many dates stick in our minds as we reflect on five years of living with covid-19 - here are some of the most memorable ones

By Alexandra Thompson

1 January 2025

A quarantine control notice at Narita airport in Japan in January 2020 — Travel restrictions were quickly put in place worldwide
JIJI PRESS/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

These are the key events of the covid-19 pandemic, from first infections to the end of the emergency:

12.12.19: emerge from Wuhan, China

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31.12.19: The World Health Organization (WHO) is of this pneumonia

07.01.20: Public health officials in China identify a

11.01.20: China reports its

13.01.20: Thailand reports the first

20.01.20: The , in聽Washington state

23.01.20: Wuhan goes

31.01.20: The WHO declares the outbreak a

11.02.20: The WHO 听肠辞惫颈诲-19

19.03.20: California becomes the first US聽state to issue a

23.03.20: The UK goes

A sign in Manchester, UK, reminding people to stay at home amid a covid-19 lockdown — People in the UK were told to stay at home to help prevent the national health services from becoming overwhelmed
Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

24.08.20: Hong Kong reports the first聽known

28.09.20: The reported global death toll聽

07.10.20: New Zealand

16.11.20: Moderna鈥檚 covid-19 vaccine is聽 in its trial

17.11.20: US medical leader Anthony Fauci talks about 鈥渓ong covid鈥�

18.11.20: Pfizer/BioNTech鈥檚 vaccine is聽 in its trial

08.12.20: Margaret Keenan of Coventry, UK, gets the

Margaret Keenan being vaccinated against covid-19 in Coventry, UK, on 8 December 2020 — Margaret Keenan getting immunised at 90 years old
Jacob King/POOL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

30.12.20: The UK authorises the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine

27.02.21: The US approves the Johnson & Johnson vaccine

14.03.21: of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine amid reports of blood clots

07.04.21: The UK restricts the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine to

13.04.21: The US while blood clot reports are investigated

23.08.21: The US the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for adults

06.10.21: The WHO

31.01.22: The US the Moderna vaccine for adults

14.03.22: China goes for 鈥渃ovid zero鈥�

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05.05.23: The WHO says covid-19 is

06.05.23: The Johnson & Johnson vaccine stops being available in the US

08.05.24: AstraZeneca

Topics: covid-19

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