Collapse · 2019–2023
COVID-19 pandemic
Wuhan, Hubei (China)
A new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, was first identified in an outbreak in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 and spread worldwide in early 2020; the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a public health emergency on 30 January and described the outbreak as a pandemic on 11 March 2020. Lockdowns, travel restrictions, school closures and remote working transformed daily life, vaccines were rolled out from December 2020, and the WHO declared the global health emergency over in May 2023.
Why it mattered
About 7 million deaths were officially reported, but the WHO estimated 14.9 million excess deaths in 2020 and 2021 alone, and other estimates put the toll at 19 to 36 million; the pandemic also caused the largest global recession since the Great Depression.
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