It’s Been One Year Since The World Saw Its First Case Of COVID-19
Today is a very important anniversary, but it isn't an anniversary that we will celebrate. Today is the anniversary of the very first reported case of COVID-19, at least that's what the Chinese media reports.
November 17, 2019 will show up in textbooks for years to come because it is when the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 was first detected in a human. SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19 and it is the reason why we are currently in this pandemic. According to a report by the South China Morning Post, the first person to contract the virus was a 55-year-old individual from Hubei province in China. Hubei is home to the infamous city of Wuhan, which was the first epicenter of the pandemic.
The first reported case of COVID-19 is generally not considered to be the first case in humans but it is still unknown who patient zero is or where the virus officially came from. What is known is that the virus was an animal based virus that probably mutated and infected another animal before infecting a human.
In just 1 year the virus has infected over 55 million people and caused over 1.3 million deaths across the globe with over 11 million of those cases and 250,000 of the deaths occurring in the United States.
The first reported case outside of China was reported in Thailand on January 13th and just 7 days later, the United States recorded its first case in the state of Washington on January 20th. Since then the virus has spread to all but a handful of nations across the world.