Our Pandemic Year—A COVID-19 Timeline

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2, a pandemic. The announcement followed a rising sense of alarm in the preceding months over a new, potentially lethal virus that was swiftly spreading around the world. A year later, we look back on one of the most challenging periods in recent memory.

It has been an emotional time marked by startling daily counts of new cases and deaths that multiplied rapidly. More than 100 million people around the world have been infected by COVID-19 and more than 2.5 million people have died of the disease. Many of us mourned loved ones in the last year, and the grief, along with isolation to prevent infections, took a toll on our mental health. Burgeoning caseloads overwhelmed hospitals, while health care workers became heroes, putting in long, harrowing hours, often (in those early days) without sufficient supplies, to care for patients with COVID-19.

Here is a month-by-month look at our pandemic year.

January: In the U.S., the number of cases and deaths begins to fall. But more variants are spreading, including one first identified in South Africa called B.1.351, which is reported in the U.S. by the end of the month. Around the world, the race is on to vaccinate as many people as possible in time to slow the spread of the variants. Researchers work to understand how deadly or contagious variants are compared to the original virus.

February: There is not enough vaccine supply to meet the demand. But the Biden Administration expects the addition of a third option (by Johnson & Johnson) to make vaccines more available to everyone. Meanwhile, companies are working to tweak their products to make distribution easier and to control new variants. So, while there may be hope that the end is in sight for the pandemic, it’s highly probable that we will still be wearing masks and taking other precautions for some time to come.