Chennai: It has been a year since Covid-19 took over our lives. Most countries continue to be under the grasp of the coronavirus despite all efforts to contain its spread.
The dangerous coronavirus pandemic has changed the complete situation of the world. People are facing different problems till date due to pandemic.
SARS-CoV-2 causes Covid-19 infection. A total of 1.33 million people died due to Covid-19 infection in the world with cases surpassing 50 million in 190 countries.
A year ago on 17 November, 2019 the first case of coronavirus was reported in Wuhan.
According to records from the Chinese government, the first case of coronavirus was on 17 November 2019, weeks before authorities announced a new disease.
Documents seen by The South China Morning Post earlier this year suggested this date was based on Chinese government data. This first infected person – coined ‘patient zero’ – is thought to have been a 55-year-old Hubei resident, but this is yet to be confirmed.
Although many theories have surfaced about the origin of the virus over the year, a Chinese virologist, Dr. Li-Meng Yan has claimed that the coronavirus was created in a government-controlled laboratory in Wuhan, and even offered ‘scientific evidence’ to back her claim.
China notifies the outbreak of this unknown virus to the WHO on 3 January, 2020. On 7 January, the Chinese CDC named the mysterious infection as novel coronavirus, dubbed 2019-nCoV.
By the third week of January, other countries started reporting cases of a similar kind. Other East Asian countries confirmed their first cases around this time. The United States confirmed its first case in Washington on 21 January . China also started imposing travel restrictions and quarantine measures in the affected provinces.
The government of India announced a nation-wide lockdown on 24 March. This later on extended in various phases.