Page 2 - GIS for Science: GIS Response to COVID-19

CHRONOLOGY OF A PANDEMIC
To most of the world, the mystery illness seemed far away when the Chinese government reported a new virus to the World Health Organization on the last day of 2019. But by late winter of 2020, the previously unknown virus had swept across the planet, touching the lives of millions of people, causing historic impacts to the world economy, and requiring monumental changes in the ways humans relate to each other. The SARS-CoV-2 virus has presented challenges unlike any that humanity has experienced or seen in our lifetime. The world has witnessed or personally experienced
heartbreaking scenes of grief and sometimes despair, frustration, uncertainty, and crisis fatigue. But it also has witnessed inspiring and emotional scenes of hope and resilience from people around the world: Italians singing together from their balconies, children scrawling messages on sidewalks, teachers holding drive-by car parades to cheer up students quarantined in their communities, doctors in scrubs and masks waving and smiling from their emergency rooms, and police officers bringing words of cheer and sometimes even dance routines to the people they serve.
December 31: Chinese authorities inform the world about a mysterious surge in pneumonia cases with no known cause in Wuhan City, Hubei province.
December 2019
January 24: Japan and the United States each confirm their second COVID-19 cases.
January 9: China reports first death linked to the new coronavirus.
January 2020
February 27: Brazil confirms its first case of COVID-19, marking the first case in South America. Cases of the virus have now been confirmed on every continent except Antarctica.
March 15: The United States officially becomes the country hardest hit by the pandemic, with more than 80,000 confirmed infections and more than 1,000 deaths.
February 2: The first COVID-19 death outside China is reported in the Philippines.
February
A total of 175 people test positive in early February for COVID-19 on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, quarantined in Japan.
February 29: First death in the United States.
March 11: WHO declares a world pandemic.
March 24: The Tokyo Olympics are delayed until 2021.
March
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GIS for Science
January 24 photo shows rapid construction site of a new hospital in China to treat patients infected by a new virus.
Residents in Wuhan, China, line up to buy masks in January.
After Italy sees a surge of cases in February, residents find ways to bring cheer to each other; here, performers play the Italian national anthem from an apartment window.
Panic buying in response to the pandemic stripped store shelves nearly bare in Lufkin, Texas.