On this day, WHO declared the novel COVID-19 a global pandemic

The World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020, declared the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak a global pandemic.

At a news briefing in 2020, WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, noted that the number of COVID-19 cases outside China increased 13-fold in 2 weeks and the number of countries with cases increased threefold.

What is COVID-19?

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Most people infected with the virus will experience mild to moderate respiratory illness and recover without requiring special treatment.

When an infected person coughs, sneezes, speaks, sings, or breathes, the virus can spread from their mouth or nose in minute liquid particles.

Is COVID-19 still a threat?

During the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, it became clear that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was unlikely to die out, but was more likely to become endemic.

Endemicity is characterized by the continued existence of the virus, but with lower levels of infection than in the preceding epidemic.

Many epidemics are curable and do not spread over the globe. SARS-CoV-2, a virus that quickly spread and had instances all across the world, was an exception to this rule.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic in March 2020 due to the epidemic growth in the number of affected persons.

However now, mass vaccinations across the globe have lowered the risk of mortality due to the disease.

Published on: Friday, March 10, 2023, 04:23 PM IST