WHO declares COVID a pandemic
March 11, 2020
The director-general of the World Health Organization, in a Geneva press room mostly emptied by his own warnings, used the word pandemic for the first time. Within days schools closed, borders shut, and most of humanity went indoors. The economy of touch and proximity was put on hold by official decree.
In context
Also in 2020 (10 other events on record)
- First COVID vaccinations · Europe · Science
- Murder of George Floyd · North America · Politics
- Hong Kong national security law · East Asia · Politics
- Crew Dragon takes humans to orbit · North America · Science
- AlphaFold solves protein folding · Europe · Science
- Soleimani killed in Baghdad · Middle East · War
Before and after in Europe
Before and after in Disaster
Era
Contemporary (2001–2026), one of 196 events from that era on Saeculum.