New Delhi: Exact one year ago China had reported the first coronavirus case in the country. Today more than 1.34 million people killed and more than 5 crore 59 lakh people infected by the deadliest covid-19 coronavirus across the world.
According to Chinese media report – The first known case of Covid-19 was traced in the last November 17, 2019. A 55-year-old man from Hubei province is suspected to be an infected person.
However, the Chinese authorities originally reported the first case on December 31 and initial reports mention that the pandemic was a result of a live animal market – the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, but the cause is unknown to date.
The Chinese government had alerted the World Health Organization by the end of December 2019 and said “there are multiple cases of pneumonia with an unknown cause that had been detected in Wuhan. The RAF started bringing citizens’ home and flying them to Brize Norton. They were taken to a hospital on the Wirral and then quarantined for 14 days.”
In the month of January – The Chinese scientists had confirmed a new strain of Covid-19, but city health officials in Wuhan said “there was no human to human transmission.”
The USA, the UK, South Korea, and Shanghai also reported cases of coronavirus in January, 2020 and then the US declared a public health emergency and closed its borders to people traveling from high-risk areas.
In February, the UK government declares coronavirus a “serious and imminent threat to public health”. The UK reported first death by coronavirus in March 2020 and then the WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic. Countries across the world began to impose restrictions, including shutting of bars, restaurants, schools, etc.
In April, India recorded 23,452 cases and the death toll stood at 723.
In May, the UK passed Italy to become the country in Europe with the highest death toll, at more than 32,000.
Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Maharashtra, and Gujarat had been the severely-hit places in India. To save the economy from the coronavirus – the government of India had started ‘Unlock 1’.
Things changed in June – India was placed fourth after the US, Brazil, and Russia. Migrants started displacing from their work states to their native villages. This worsened the economic situation that forced central and state governments to exit the coronavirus lockdown.
Currently, in November, the race to develop an effective vaccine has become a priority. The peak stage of the Covid-19 pandemic in India has been delayed by the eight-week lockdown along with strengthened public health measures and it may now arrive around mid-November during which there could be a paucity of isolation and ICU beds, and ventilators, according to a study.
_Vinayak.Barot
