Due to COVID-19, we have been living amid a pandemic for almost a year now. And while the year has been a never-ending bumpy road, the following timeline shows the development of not only what we know about COVID-19 but also the origins of the newly developed vaccines, giving us hope of a better year.
January:
9th: The World Health Organization (WHO) announced that there was a mysterious Coronavirus Pneumonia, found in Wuhan, China.
21st: The CDC confirmed the first U.S. Coronavirus case on Jan 21. Meanwhile, in China, four people died from the virus and more than 200 individuals were exposed, leading Chinese scientists to believe that COVID-19 is spread through human transmission.
23rd: Wuhan underwent a lockdown and started what we now know as “quarantine.” An additional 13 people died and there were 300 more positive cases.
31st: At this point, the death toll was more than 200, and there were around 9,800 cases worldwide. The WHO decided to issue a sixth public health emergency and transmission is spreading quickly in the U.S., Germany, Japan, Vietnam and Taiwan.
February:
2nd: Air travel restrictions were starting to be implemented around the world. This included two-week home-based quarantines and regular health screenings upon entry.
25th: Nancy Messonnier, MD and the director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases says that COVID-19 is starting to meet the requirements to be taken as a pandemic status.
March:
11th: The WHO announces that COVID-19 is a pandemic.
13th: Donald Trump declares that COVID-19 is a national emergency, and billions of dollars from federal funding is given to help combat the virus spread. The Trump administration also issued a travel ban on Non-US citizens traveling from Europe.
17th: Trump’s administration asked Congress to provide an emergency relief check to U.S. citizens after the 100th death from COVID-19 was reported.
19th: California becomes the first state to issue a stay-at-home order for all citizens, with exceptions for essential workers and grocery needs.
25th: Reports and research shows that the social distancing measures taken in Wuhan, China helped “flatten the curve” and can delay a second wave of cases worldwide.
26th: The Senate passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which provided 2 trillion dollars of aid to hospitals, small businesses and local governments. The House of Representatives then approves the act the next day.
April:
16th: After Trump entertained the idea of reopening the U.S. for Easter Sunday, the White House decided to release a series of guidelines on how civilians could return back to their daily lives, meanwhile being safe.
29th: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) found in a trial data that Remdesivir, a COVID-19 treatment medicine, allowed patients to have a three percent faster recovery time than those that did not receive the anti-viral.
May:
9th: The FDA approves an at-home saliva-based test to detect the presence of COVID-19. This made it easier for those that are ill, quarantines, or at a higher risk of death.
21st: The Trump administration formed a “vaccine deal” with AstraZeneca to help speed up the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.
28th: The CDC announced that the U.S. COVID-19 death mark passed 100,000.
June:
10th: The U.S. alone reaches two-million positive COVID-19 cases, and they continue to spike as individual states try to ease social distancing precautions.
22nd: There was a study that suggested that 80 percent of COVID-19 cases were undetected due to patients that received care for flu-like symptoms, which could likely be COVID-19 symptoms. If this were accurate, the number of cases would be closer to 8.7 million.
26th: The White House’s COVID-19 Task Force held a briefing which focuses on the growing cases in some states such as Texas and Florida. They decided to pause the reopening of each state.
30th: It is projected that the U.S could reach 100,000 new cases per day due to the outbreak's “current trajectory.”
July:
2nd: As cases reached about 50,000 positives a day, states such as Indiana and California reversed their state reopening plans.
6th: Scientists ask WHO to revise their recommendations on staying safe with COVID-19 after more research supports it is an airborne virus.
7th: The U.S. now surpasses 3 million cases, and the Trump administration decided the nation would “withdraw” from WHO.
9th: WHO announces that COVID-19 is in fact an airborne pathogen and they note that the virus can linger in the air at crowded indoor spaces.
14th: A development was made in the COVID-19 vaccine. Three groups of 15 people received two shots 28 days apart, and each produced an immune response.
16th: The U.S. reported 75,600 cases in a single day.
21st: Two vaccines from AstraZeneca and CaSino show “promising results” in the fight against COVID-19.
27th: Republicans introduce a series of bills, called the HEALS Act, to help provide provisions for another stimulus check, increased funding for small businesses, as well as protection for companies that decide to bring back employees in the workplace.
August:
4th: With the pandemic being in progress for five months at the time, it was found that 49 percent of low-income areas had no free beds in the ICU, forcing these hospitals to transfer their sickest patients to wealthier areas.
7th: The White House and Democrats “stall” talk of a second round of relief packages, despite the jobless claims reaching 1.186 million.
12th: It is found that patients with a BMI of 40 are at a higher risk of dying from COVID-19, then those with a BMI of 18-24.
13th: Joe Biden suggests that all governors implement a three-month mask mandate. At this time there were reported 165,000 deaths and requiring a mask was estimated to save 40,000 lives during that required time period.
17th: COVID-19 became the third-leading cause of death in the U.S, with heart disease being at the top and cancer coming in second.
28th: The first known case of re-infection was reported to be a 25-year-old man from Nevada. His condition was mild, but a separate case of reinfection was more severe and required hospitalization.
September:
1st: The U.S. rejected the WHO COVID-19 Vaccine, saying it would not participate in the initiative.
3rd: Three studies found that steroids were the most effective treatment for serious COVID-19 cases. The GSK also began human vaccine trials.
8th: AstraZeneca vaccine trial is paused after an unknown reaction happened in one of the UK study patients.
14th: The NIH launched an investigation into AstraZeneca after it was paused during its third phase. It was then announced that the patient suffered from spinal cord damage, but it was still uncertain what could have caused the damage.
14th: Pfizer and BioNTech however announced that they would start phase three of their vaccine trials, recruiting 30,000 more participants.
15th: The CDC reports that people that had recently tested positive for COVID-19 were 2.4 times more likely to have “dined out.”
16th: The Trump Administration released a vaccine distribution plan. It aimed to make the vaccine free for all Americans, and that once the vaccine was authorized 6.6 million kits would be distributed.
21st: The CDC removes newly added information from their website about COVID-19 being transmitted through air. They claimed it was an error and was a draft of proposed changes.
21st: Johnson & Johnson begins phase three of their vaccine trial as well. Unlike the others, it does not need to be frozen and may only require one dose instead of two. They also have the largest number of participants, reaching 60,000.
23rd: A new, mutated and contagious strand of COVID-19 is found by a study completed at the Houston Methodist Hospital.
25th: Midwest states are drastically seeing a rise in COVID-19 cases, with South Dakota increasing cases by a calculated 166 percent.
28th: The global death toll of COVID-19 patients reaches one million.
29th: The HHS announces a plan to send 100 million rapid COVID-19 tests.
October:
2nd: Trump and the First Lady test positive for COVID-19, and Trump is admitted to the hospital after experiencing mild symptoms.
8th: After Trump's “speedy recovery,” not only was there a dramatic spike in 39 states' cases, but more Americans were more trusting of Biden to lead the health care system. The White House COVID-19 outbreak also grows to 34 after the Rose Garden ceremony for Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett
9th: The US signs a 486 million dollar agreement with AstraZeneca to help develop an antibody treatment.
12th: The Johnson & Johnson company also had to halt the third phase of their vaccine trial after a patient displayed symptoms from an unexplained illness.
15th: The U.S. reaches 60,000 cases in one day. New research was also found that the risk of getting COVID-19 may be related to blood type.
19th: The global COVID-19 cases reached 40 million, and 1.1 million deaths.
22nd: The FDA approves Remdesivir as the first COVID-19 treatment drug.
23rd: Both AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johsnon announced that they would be restating their vaccine clinical trials after halting it due to safety concerns.
November:
4th: The U.S. hits a record-breaking 100,000 cases in one day.
9th: At the time President-Elect Joe Biden announces his plan for a COVID-19 transition team.
16th: Moderna, one of the more common COVID-19 vaccines to date, announced that its experimental vaccine reduces the COVID-19 infection risk by 94.5 percent.
17th: Fauci discusses the need for a long-term follow-up on recovered COVID-19 patients to further study what side effects they may deal with.
18th: The Pfizer, BioNTech vaccine is announced to be 95 percent effective, and to date is the most popular vaccine distributed.
December:
10th: The FDA endorses the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, deciding the benefits of this vaccine outweigh the risks.
11th: The FDA approves the shipment of the Pfizer, BioNTech vaccine, starting with health care workers.
17th: The FDA also endorses the Moderna vaccine as well.
18th: The Moderna vaccine is approved by the FDA and shipping began.
28th: Novavax starts its third phase of clinical trials for a vaccine, named “PREVENT-19.”
29th: The U.S. sees its first case of the new COVID-19 strain from a Colorado man in his 20s.
January:
6th: New York governor Andrew Cuomo makes a threat to hospitals that if they do not use their allotment of the COVID-19 vaccine fast enough, he will fine them.
11th: A gorilla tests positive for COVID-19 at the San Diego Park. The U.S. also began to dispense vaccine shots at stadiums and fairgrounds.
21st: Doctor Anthony Fauci is now able to take center stage at the White House to confidently discuss COVID-19. He described the experience as liberating after dealing with constant negative remarks from former President Donald Trump.
February:
1st: The Chinese police arrested more than 80 people for counterfeit after making and selling more than 3,000 fake COVID-19 vaccines, of which was just saline water in vials.
17th: The U.S. will have paid more than $200 million to the World Health Organization to WHO by the end of the month to reverse Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from WHO.
17th: Breathomix, a Dutch company, manufactured an electronic device called SpiroNose, which serves as a helpful screening tool to find if an individual has COVID-19.