Spirit of America Bookstore U.S.  Timeline  –  2020  Coronavirus  Epidemic Ancient Times - 3500 B.C.E to 1490 C.E. 1491-1800    •    1801-1900    •    1901-1930    •    1931-1950    •    1951-1968    •    1969-2000 •    2001-2010    •    2011-2016    •    2017-2018    •    2019-2020    •    2021 to present epidemic history to 2019    •    2020 - epidemic begins    •    U.S. national emergency    •    year 2021    •    RECENT EVENTS    •    image gallery    •    fiction & non-fiction books page The coronavirus epidemic events of early 2020 kept adding new entries on the Spirit of America Timeline - 2019 to Present Page and news reports made it clear that the epidemic was here to stay; so this page was cut in late February to make the detail epidemic events more visible without interfering with the U.S. presidential primary elections, stock market uncertainty, weather disasters, and other non-epidemic news.                   coronavirus epidemic entry at Wikipedia latest worldwide info & map at Johns Hopkins University latest on the coronavirus pandemic situation in Italy at the ZME Science website State of California Coronavirus Epidemic Information Page State of New Mexico Coronavirus Epidemic Information Page Because I live in New Mexico USA, I posted events here for NM also, which grew large so I cut a separate page in July 2020. COVID-19 vaccine: Dr. Leana Wen shares tips on how to stay safe this holiday, 25 Nov 2020 watch covid-19 vaccine news video from Walgreens [5:51] online at YouTube On average, the annual influenza vaccine in the USA reduces the chance of getting the flu by 70% to 90%.    1721-22 Boston smallpox outbreak • entry at Wikipedia    1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic in Philadelphia • entry at Wikipedia 5,000 or more people died between August 1 and November 9; by the end of September, 20,000 people had fled the city (which had a total population of 50,000); the mortality rate peaked in October, before frost finally killed the mosquitoes and brought an end to the epidemic in November.    1846-1860 Worldwide Cholera Pandemic and the 1854 Cholera Outbreak in London, England • pandemic entry at Wikipedia + 1854 outbreak entry at Wikipedia    1878 Yellow Fever Epidemic in Mississippi River Valley • entry at Wikipedia In 1878, about 20,000 people died in an epidemic which struck the towns of the Mississippi River Valley and its tributaries    1896-98 Plague Epidemic in Bombay/Mumbai, India • entry at Wikipedia    1900 Bubonic Plague Outbreak in San Francisco's Chinatown: the first plague epidemic in the continental United States • entry at Wikipedia    worldwide 1918 H1N1 influenza 'Spanish flu' pandemic • entry at Wikipedia    "America's Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918" [1976, rev 2003] by Alfred W. Crosby listed in Los Angeles Times 100 Most Important Books of 1997 Cambridge Univ Press 2nd Edition 9x6 pb [9/2003] for $22.18 Cambridge Univ Press 9x6 pb [1/90] out of print/used    "The Great Influenza: The Story of The Deadliest Pandemic In History" [2004] New York Times bestseller by John M. Barry – with a new Afterword on avian flu Kindle Edition from Penguin Books [2005 edition] for $13.99 Penguin Books 8½x5½ pb [10/2005] for $12.08 Paw Prints 8½x5½ hardcover [5/2008] for $26.00 Viking Adult 9½x6½ hardcover [2/2004] out of print/used    "Pandemic 1918: Eyewitness Accounts From The Greatest Medical Holocaust In Modern History" [2018] by Catharine Arnold a 'gripping narrative marking the 100th anniversary of an epidemic that altered world history' Kindle Edition from St. Martin's Press [8/2018] for $12.99 St. Martin's Griffin 8¼x5½ pb [5/2020] for $12.99 St. Martin's Press 9½x6½ hardcover [8/2018] for $20.99 1957:    the Asian flu (70,000 Americans killed) 1968:    the Hong Kong flu (34,000 Americans killed)    Newsweek Magazine January 1969 issue cover story "Man vs. Virus: Fighting The Flu" single-issue magazine [1/1969] out of print/used 2002 Nov 16:    The new SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) coronavirus was first identified in Foshan, Guangdong, China. Over 8,000 people from 29 different countries and territories were infected, and at least 774 died worldwide. 2003 July 5:    The World Health Organization declared SARS contained after about 8 months. ( However, several SARS cases were reported until May 2004.) • entry at Wikipedia    Newsweek Magazine May 2003 issue cover story "S.A.R.S. - What You Need To Know, The New Age of Epidemics" not found on Amazon 2009 March:    An unknown virus began spreading in Mexico, and by late April, cases of the H1N1 virus - commonly called the Swine Flu - had been confirmed in the U.S., Canada, Spain, and the United Kingdom. 2009 June 11:    The World Health Organization declared a new pandemic as a result of the global spread of the H1N1 virus • '2009 swine flu pandemic' entry at Wikipedia 2013 December:    An 18-month-old boy in Guinea was bitten by a bat and died a brutal death a day later; after that, there were five more fatal cases. 2014 July:    The Ebola virus disease (EVD) spread out of Guinea, crossing borders into neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone; President Obama activated the Emergency Operations Center at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia; the C.D.C. immediately deployed C.D.C. personnel to West Africa to coordinate a response that included vector tracing, testing, education, logistics, and communication. Altogether, the C.D.C. trained 24,655 medical workers in West Africa, and back home in America, trained more than 6,500 people thru mock outbreaks and practice scenarios. 2014 Sept 30:    The first case of Ebola was detected in the U.S.A.; a man had traveled from West Africa to Dallas and somehow slipped through the testing protocol; he was immediately detected and isolated, but died a week later; two nurses who tended to him contracted Ebola but later recovered – All of the protocols had worked: the disease was contained. Those three confirmed cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD) were the ONLY cases of Ebola in the U.S.A. because President Obama did what needed to be done three months prior to the first case. 2015 April:    A widespread epidemic of Zika virus disease or Zika fever in Brazil spread to other parts of South and Central America; the U.S. was affected very little, except in Miami, Florida and Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico still has large numbers of cases in 2020). Zika virus originated in Africa and is spread by mosquitoes or human contact. The World Health Organization (WHO) announced the end of the Zika virus epidemic in November 2016. 2018: [There was] an 80% reduction in the C.D.C.’s program that worked in various countries to fight epidemics: “Countries where the C.D.C. is planning to scale back include some of the world’s hot spots for emerging infectious disease, such as China, Pakistan, Haiti, Rwanda, and Congo”. 2018 April 10:    President Trump dissolved the Homeland Security global health security team overseen by advisor Tom Bossert, essentially firing him; he was not replaced. 2018 May 8:    President Trump dissolved the National Security Council's Senior Director for Global Health Security & Bio-defense position; Rear Admiral R. Timothy Ziemer was not reassigned. 2018 May 18: Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio sent a letter { page 1 + page 2 } to President Trump demanding answers after Trump fired the entire White House pandemic team. The  Year  2 0 1 9 2019 July: Dr. Luciana Borio, Director for Medical & Biodefense Preparedness at the National Security Council, left the job; President Trump did not replace her.    November 2019: The worldwide COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic originated from Wuhan, Hubei province, China and most likely was the result of an undetected accidental leak inside the Wuhan Institute of Virology laboratory. Three Wuhan lab workers were hospitalized with COVID-like symptoms in November 2019 {reported in the Wall Street Journal in May 2021}. history of the Wuhan Institute of Virology entry at Wikipedia 'COVID-19 Lab Leak Theory' entry at Wikipedia October 2020 article on COVID-19 lab leak theories in The New Yorker Magazine The Wuhan Institute of Virology was known for sloppy lab protocol & procedures and also for having lax security in the building; research center director Dr. Shi Zhengli was reprimanded several times. November 2019: A female university graduate of 2012 named Huang Yanling who worked at the Wuhan Institute of Virology P4 Laboratory was 'patient zero' for the novel coronavirus and she died from it {per widespread rumors on Chinese social media in February 2020}. The false 'patient zero' at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market was a 57-year-old seafood merchant named Wei Guixian, who first started to feel sick on December 10. The incident was used as a diversion and the market was shut down 'for sanitary procedures and disinfection' on January First. Of the initial 41 people hospitalized with pneumonia in Wuhan who were officially identified as having laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection by 2 January 2020, two-thirds had visited the market. In May 2020, the Chinese Center for Disease Control & Prevention said that animal samples collected from the seafood market had tested negative for the virus, indicating that the market was the site of an early superspread-ing event, but it was not the site of the initial outbreak. February 2020: Chinese social media began widely and rapidly spreading rumors and asking about the whereabouts of 'patient zero' Huang Yanling; Chinese officials quickly stepped in, censoring the reports from the internet, locking down the Wuhan Virology Lab, and scrubbing Huang Yanling's biography and image from the lab's website. It is quite inter-esting here that the Chinese Army team assigned to take over the lab was not a medical brigade, but was a unit of the Chinese Army Public Relations division. 2019 mid-December:    The first U.S. coronavirus infections probably occurred about a month before public health officials confirmed the first U.S. case, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study published 30 November 2020; the report, published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, said that C.D.C. scientists detected coronavirus antibodies in 106 of 7,389 blood donations collected by the American Red Cross in nine states; some of the samples were collected a few weeks before the new coronavirus was officially identified in China. The findings supported mounting evidence that the pandemic was already spreading around the world before public health authorities recognized the threat. Further evidence: A National Institutes of Health study published in June 2021 in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases reported that the first coronavirus case in the United States might have occurred as early as December 2019, weeks earlier than previously believed. A volunteer who donated blood on 7 January 2020 - for a study that wasn't related to COVID-19 - tested positive for coronavirus antibodies: antibodies typically take two weeks to develop, which 'suggests [that] the virus may have been present in Illinois as early as 24 December 2019'. 2019 mid-December:    A series of cases of pneumonia associated with an unknown coronavirus were reported to health authorities in Wuhan; the Wuhan Institute of Virology checked its coronavirus collection and found that the new virus had 96% genetic similarity to RaTG13, a virus that its researchers had discovered in horseshoe bats in southwest China. 2019 Dec 18:    U.S. House of Representatives impeached Donald Trump, then sent impeachment articles to the Senate. 2019 Dec 30:    Wuhan C.D.C. issued emergency warnings to local hospitals about a number of mysterious 'pneumonia' cases discovered in the city in the previous week; on the same day, ophthalmologist Li Wenliang, who worked at Wuhan Central Hospital, warned people worldwide about early COVID-19 infections in Wuhan; he asked for confidentality, but the warning was leaked and he was labelled as a whistleblower. He later caught Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus from an undiagnosed patient and died from the disease on 7 February 2020, at age 34.    Anthony Fauci, MD [b. 1940] Anthony Fauci's role guiding America sanely and calmly through COVID (and through the torments of Trump) earned him the trust of millions during one of the most terrifying periods in modern American history; but this was only the most recent of the global epidemics in which Dr. Fauci played a major role: his crucial role in researching HIV and bringing AIDS into sympathetic public view and his leadership in navigating the Ebola, SARS, West Nile, and anthrax crises, make him truly an American hero • entry at Wikipedia • IMDb credits listing    "On Call: A Doctor's Journey In Public Service" [2024]   #1 New York Times bestseller by Anthony Fauci, MD Memoir by the doctor who became a beacon of hope for millions through the COVID pandemic, and whose six-decade career in high-level public service put him in the room with seven presidents Kindle Edition from Viking [6/2024] for $15.99 Viking 9¼x6¼ hardcover [6/2024] for $21.00 The  Year  2 0 2 0 2020 January:    President Trump received a briefing from our intelligence organizations that the outbreak of the Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus was much worse than China was admitting and that it would definitely hit our country if something wasn’t done to prevent it; he ignored the report, refusing to trust our own intelligence. 2020 Jan 6:    Likely first deaths in U.S.A. from Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus - see February 6th entry. 2020 Jan 8:    Washington Post reporters Gerry Shih and Lena Sun reported an outbreak of an 'unidentified and possibly new viral disease in central China' that was sending alarms across Asia in advance of the Lunar New Year travel season; based on a C.D.C. warning. 2020 Jan 9:    First confirmed death from the new Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus epidemic in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. 2020 Jan 11: After Chinese scientists quickly identified the virus and its genomic sequencing data, they shared the information internationally. 2020 Jan 20:    The first acknowledged case of Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus in the U.S., in Washington State. 2020 Jan 22:    Donald Trump, speaking in Davos, Switzerland: "We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine." 2020 Jan 23:    Chinese authorities expanded a lockdown and travel ban in central China's Hubei province to cover an area with 35 million people in 13 cities; the death toll from the Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus rose to at least 26, with more than 800 people infected in China and six other countries, including the United States. 2020 Jan 26:    The death toll in China resulting from the Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus increased to 56. 2020 Jan 28:    Hong Kong closed most of its border crossings with mainland China to try to keep out the Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus; in China, the death toll exceeded 100 and another 4,500 people were sick; meanwhile, the virus may have spread to Africa. 2020 Jan 29:    British Airways and Lufthansa cancelled all their flights to mainland China as a reaction to the spread of the Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus; dozens of other airlines soon cancelled or reduced scheduled flights until further notice. 2020 Jan 30:    W.H.O. declared the Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus outbreak a global health emergency. More than 200 people have died from the flu-like virus, and more than 9,400 have been infected. 2020 Jan 31:    Twitter and Facebook took steps to remove misinformation about the Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus on their platforms. 2020 Feb 1:    Wuhan, China officials say that there are around 12,000 confirmed cases of the Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus, with the death toll rising past 250. 2020 Feb 1:    According to the C.D.C., Americans are in far, far more danger from the flu than from the new Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus; already this winter, the flu has sickened more than 15 million people in the USA, sending more than 150,000 to the hospital and killing 8,000 – and this isn't even a bad flu year. 2020 Feb 2:    Donald Trump: "We pretty much shut it down coming in from China." 2020 Monday Feb 3:    China's Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus outbreak continued to spread, with the country's death toll rising to 425 as Hong Kong reported its first death from the virus. 2020 Feb 4: The People's Liberation Army of China took over control of the Wuhan Institute of Virology P4 Laboratory. 2020 Feb 5:    Skipping details like holding a trial on the matter, the U.S. Senate voted not to convict Donald Trump on impeachment charges. 2020 Feb 5:    China's Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus outbreak continued to spread rapidly; the number of verified cases rose to more than 24,000, with 490 deaths in mainland China, one in Hong Kong, and one in the Philippines. 2020 Feb 6:    The death toll from China's Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus outbreak surged again, rising by 73 to a total of 563 people; another 10 cases were confirmed on a quarantined cruise ship in the Japanese port of Yokohama, bringing the total cases on board to 20. 2020 Feb 6:    Officials in Santa Clara County, California revealed on Tuesday April 22 that autopsies had uncovered three early COVID-19 coronavirus deaths; the cases included a person who died at home on February 6, three weeks before the earliest known U.S. coronavirus death was recorded in Kirkland, Washington; the three "died at home during a time when very limited testing was available only through the C.D.C.", the county said; deaths typically occur a month after exposure, so the virus could have reached the U.S. by early January. 2020 Feb 7:    The Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus has killed 638 people and infected more than 31,000, mostly in China; there have been 12 confirmed cases in the United States. 2020 Feb 9:    China announced that the death toll resulting from the Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus has risen to 811, which is higher than the number of fatalities from the SARS epidemic between 2002 and 2003; the number of confirmed infections rose to 37,198; the Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus death toll continued to rise on Sunday: the country's National Health Commission reported that more than 90 people died Sunday, the largest one-day toll to date in the two-month epidemic, which pushed the global total to more than 900. 2020 Feb 12: The Dow Jones Industrial Index closed at an all time high of 29,551.42. 2020 Feb 13:    Chinese public health officials reported a huge increase in the number of Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus cases; the 14,840 new cases, lifting total infections to about 60,000, marked a 10-fold increase over the number reported a day earlier; the 242 new deaths more than doubled the previous record of most in a single day; the number of confirmed cases jumped to nearly 50,000 in Hubei alone, and about 60,000 overall cases and 1,367 deaths. Feb 15: 2020 Feb 15:    Widespread rumors on Chinese social media specified that a female university graduate of 2012 working at the Wuhan Institute of Virology P4 Laboratory named Huang Yanling was 'patient zero' for the novel coronavirus and that she had died from it. 2020 Feb 15-16:    The United States evacuated 328 American passengers from the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan over the weekend; they were transported to and isolated on U.S. military bases. 2020 Feb 17:    The number of Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus infections among the 3,700 passengers & crew members stuck on board the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan nearly doubled, reaching 135; the 65 new patients included as many as 11 Americans. 2020 Feb 17:    Fourteen of the American cruise ship passengers from Japan were confirmed to have been infected with the flu-like virus; there were about 400 Americans on the ship, and at least 40 are being treated in Japan after being diagnosed with Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus. The U.S. citizens who weren't believed to have been infected will remain under a 14-day quarantine at U.S. military bases. There are 59 known cases of Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus in the U.S.: The 42 passengers who were on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan, three people who were brought home from China, and 14 others. The global death toll is 2,763 people, none in the U.S. 2020 Feb 19:    About 500 people started disembarking from the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan; the flu-like Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus infected more than 540 people on the ship - including 88 new infections announced Tuesday - in the biggest concentration of cases outside China; more passengers will be released as a 14-day quarantine ends. The coronavirus death toll on mainland China rose above 2,000. 2020 Feb 20:    Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus cases in the South Korean city of Daegu rose by two-thirds to 104 and South Korea reported its first fatality. Japan reported the first two deaths from the Diamond Princess cruise liner - an 80-year-old japanese couple. Iran reported three new cases, one day after two people died of the virus in the holy city of Qom. There is a cumulative total of 74,546 infections and 2,118 deaths, mostly in China's central Hubei province. 2020 Sunday Feb 23:    Italy says that Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus cases spiked from three to 152 in a matter of days, making them the largest outbreak outside of Asia. South Korean President Moon Jae-in raised South Korea's Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus alert to highest Level 4, or 'serious', after the number of infections increased by 169 to 602 and a fifth person died. Iran confirmed eight deaths from the Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus outbreak, the most outside China, and said that it will close schools, universities, and cultural centers across 14 provinces. Beijing is postponing its biggest annual political event, the National People's Congress, as it focuses on containing the Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus outbreak. 2020 Feb 25:    Iran's deputy health minister said that he had tested positive for the Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus and placed himself under quarantine; he said a day earlier that severe measures to isolate people with the virus were not necessary even though the virus was spreading in the shrine city of Qom. 2020 Tuesday Feb 25:    A 23-year-old American soldier based in South Korea tested positive for the Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus; the soldier is stationed at Camp Carroll in Waegwan and is the first U.S. service member to be infected with the virus; he is under quarantine at his off-base residence. There are 1,146 confirmed coronavirus cases in South Korea, with more than half of the patients living in the city of Daegu. The soldier visited a military base in Daegu on Friday, and then returned to Camp Carroll. (There are 28,500 U.S. soldiers stationed in South Korea.) 2020 Wednesday Feb 26:    Germany has only about 20 confirmed cases, but the government said it was already impossible for public health officials to trace the chains of infection of all of the patients; Germany's Health Minister told regional authorities, hospitals, and companies to prepare for a possible pandemic. The alarm came as the number of new cases within China, where the Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus outbreak began, fell below the total reported in other countries for the first time. 2020 Wednesday Feb 26: A whistleblower filed a complaint with the Office of the Special Counsel, an independent federal watchdog, saying that the Department of Health and Human Services 'improperly deployed' more than a dozen workers without proper virus-prevention training or gear to receive the first Americans evacuated from Wuhan, China, after the coronavirus outbreak started there. The workers were not tested for the virus later, said lawyers for the H.H.S. senior official who filed the complaint. The whistleblower said she has been pressured to move to a new job since reporting the matter to others in the department, including people in H.H.S. Secretary Alex Azar's office. 2020 Thursday Feb 27:    Japan has ordered all public schools closed; every Disney theme park and property in Asia is closed; in the hardest-hit part of Italy, around 4% of the population has come down with the illness. California Gov. Newsom announced that 33 people in California have tested positive for Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus and that officials are now monitoring more than 8,400 people for the virus. 2020 Friday Feb 28:    Mexico confirmed its first 2 cases of the Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus; at least five family contacts of the first patient have been placed in isolation. Oregon health officials reported the first Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus case in Oregon; the patient is from Washington County, with no known history of travel to places hit hard by the outbreak, and no contact with a known case of the virus. 2020 Saturday Feb 29:    Health officials in Washington state said a Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus patient died there, the first confirmed novel virus death in the United States; he was reportedly in his 50s and had underlying health issues. Thailand and Australia also reported their first confirmed coronavirus deaths. 2020 Sunday March 1:    South Korea closed all churches in the country to prevent spread of the Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus. France's Louvre Museum shut down over fear of contamination by foreign visitors. Australia and Thailand reported their first deaths from Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus, and the Dominican Republic, Scotland, and the Czech Republic announced their first confirmed infections. 2020 Monday March 2:    Four more people died from Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus in Washington state, bringing the death toll in the state, and the entire U.S., to six. King County, Washington declared a state of emergency and said that it had confirmed 14 new cases. Four of the deaths and most of the state's 18 confirmed infections were reported at the Life Care Center nursing facility in Kirkland; authorities are investigating the center. The total number of confirmed cases in the U.S. reached 90, including the 45 people evacuated from the quarantined cruise ship in Japan. 2020 Monday March 2:    “A lot of things are happening, a lot of very exciting things are happening and they’re happening very rapidly.” 2020 Tuesday March 3: The U.S. Federal Reserve announced that it was cutting interest rates by half a percentage point to counter economic damage caused by the global Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus outbreak; CNBC characterized the cut as an 'emergency' measure since it came between the policy meetings where Fed leaders usually make adjustments (this was the first emergency rate cut since the 2008 financial crisis). 2020 Tuesday March 3:    Three more people died from Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus infections in Washington state, bringing the death toll from the outbreak in the United States to nine; all of the U.S. deaths have occurred in the state of Washington, although more than 100 cases of the disease have been reported in 15 states. 2020 Wednesday March 4:    The U.S. has confirmed 150 Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus infections across 16 states, with eleven deaths. California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency after the state reported its first death from the coronavirus; the California man who died fell ill while aboard the Grand Princess cruise ship after a trip to Mexico; the ship is being held offshore so everyone on board can be screened for the flu-like virus, which has sickened more than 50 people in 12 California counties. 2020 Wednesday March 4:    “If we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work – some of them go to work, but they get better.” 2020 Thursday March 5:    “I NEVER said people that are feeling sick should go to work.” 2020 Thursday March 5:    Public health officials confirmed at least 52 new coronavirus infections in the U.S., including the first cases recorded in Texas, Tennessee, and Maryland. More than 20 new cases were confirmed in King County, Washington, bringing the infection count there to 70 and the state's death toll to 12. The U.S. Senate passed a more than $8 billion spending package for fighting coronavirus in a 96-1 vote, sending it to President Trump. There have been nearly 200 cases in the U.S., and 13 deaths. 2020 Thursday March 5: W.H.O. declared the Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern. Bill and Melinda Gates pledged $100 million to coronavirus response efforts. 2020 Friday March 6:    The number of confirmed cases of the Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus approached 99,000 worldwide, and the total deaths attributed to the new virus topped 3,300 in at least 15 countries. 2020 Saturday March 7:    A five-story hotel used to quarantine people potentially exposed to Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus in Quanzhou, China collapsed, reportedly trapping around 70 people and killing 10; Reuters reports that 23 are still in need of rescue. In the United States, the death toll from the virus rose to 19, and the number of confirmed cases surpassed 400; New York State declared a state of emergency. 2020 Sunday March 8:    The Italian government announced the drastic measure of shutting down much of the country's north in an effort to curb the spread of the Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus restricting movement of around 16 million people in places like Milan and Venice until at least April 3. Italy now has more than 5,800 confirmed cases and 233 people have died from the virus, the highest amount of deaths outside China. Most of those cases have occurred in Italy's northern regions, especially Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, and Veneto, which combined account for 40 percent of the country's economic output. Italy's coronavirus death toll rose to 366 later on Sunday after authorities announced another 133 deaths, the largest daily rise in reported fatalities in the country since the outbreak began. 2020 Sunday March 8: California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has given permission for a cruise ship containing passengers and crew who have tested positive for the Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus to dock Monday in Oakland, California and allow its thousands of passengers to disembark. The Grand Princess was held off the coast of California so that people with symptoms could be tested for the virus, and it was forbidden to dock in San Francisco amid evidence that it was a breeding ground for a cluster of Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus cases from a previous voyage. 2020 Sunday March 8:    Public health officials in the U.S. confirmed at least 532 Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus infections in 33 states, and 21 deaths. Italy now has reported more cases than any other nation outside China, with more than 7,350 of the world's 109,400 cases. 2020 Wednesday March 11:    The number of reported Covid-19 infections has zoomed past 1,000 in the USA, doubling just since Sunday; at least 1,050 people in 38 states and DC have tested positive; at least 29 people have died. 2020 Wednesday March 11: New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham issued Executive Order 2020-004 declaring a state of emergency surrounding the Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus. 2020 Thursday March 12: Because of the Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus crisis, climate activist Greta Thunberg moved all of her Friday climate rallies online. 2020 Thursday March 12: The most dramatic stock market losses since the market crash of 1987. 2020 Friday March 13:    President Trump declared a national emergency related to the Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus outbreak; the new designation will allow up to $50 billion in additional funding for response teams to mitigate the effects of COVID-19, which now has more than 2,100 confirmed cases in the U.S. 2020 Friday March 13: Louisiana's upcoming presidential primary is postponed due to concerns over the Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus pandemic; Louisiana's Secretary of State announced that he's asking the governor to issue an executive order postponing the presidential primary that was set to take place on April 4; the primary will be moved to June 20. 2020 Friday March 13: The U.S. stock market yo-yoed back up, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index soaring 1,985 points, or 9.4 percent, its largest single-day point gain in history; the S&P 500 and NASDAQ Composite climbed 9.2 and 9.3 percent, respectively, their largest one-day gains since 2008. The jump came at the end of a volatile week influenced by the global Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus outbreak. 2020 Friday March 13:    Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus cases in the USA surpassed 2,000, a two-fold increase since Tuesday; the majority of the cases are in 4 states: Washington (457), New York (421), California (247), and Massachusetts (123); there have been 42 deaths. 2020 March 14: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that the government will implement a strict policy under which all travelers, even New Zealanders, must self-isolate for 14 days upon their arrival in the country, starting Sunday at midnight; all cruise ships are banned from coming to New Zealand until June 30, as well. There are only six confirmed cases and no deaths in New Zealand attributed to COVID-19 so far. 2020 Sunday March 15:    It took three months to reach 100,000 coronavirus cases worldwide; the second 100,000 took only 12 days. 2020 Monday March 16: U.S. researchers began a first test of an experimental coronavirus vaccine; doctors at the Kaiser Permanente Research Institute in Seattle, Washington injected the arms of four healthy volunteers - the potential vaccine for the COVID-19 coronavirus was developed in record time (and still may not become available in quantity until this Summer). 2020 Monday March 16: Amazon announced plans to hire 100,000 people across the U.S. to help meet a surge in purchases by customers shopping more online to avoid going out as the coronavirus spreads; the company said it would hike hourly pay by $2 an hour through April for workers at its warehouses and delivery centers, and at Whole Foods grocery stores - these employees supposedly make at least $15 an hour. Retail chains Nordstrom and Sephora announced closing their stores amid the coronavirus pandemic. 2020 Tuesday March 17:    The Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus has now spread to all 50 states and Washington, DC as West Virginia announced its first case; the number of cases in the U.S. has surpassed 6,500 with 115 deaths (note that it was 4,661 cases and 85 deaths just yesterday) – that is a rate of 1.75 percent, far better than the worldwide rate, but far worse than the average 0.1% death rate from seasonal flu. There have been deaths in 18 states, with the most deaths in Washington State (55). The number of confirmed cases worldwide has surpassed 200,000, with 8,243 deaths – a death rate of more than 4 percent; more than half of those deaths have occurred outside of China. 2020 Thursday March 19:    The Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus death toll in Italy reached 3,405, surpassing that of China, where the outbreak began; in China, 3,249 people have died. Italy has reported more than 400 deaths two days in a row; China reported its second straight day with no new locally-transmitted cases, a first since the outbreak began three months ago. 2020 Friday March 20:    The Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus worldwide pandemic is now 254,996 cases and 10,444 deaths, for a death rate of 4 percent; the U.S.A. now has 14,322 cases and 210 deaths, for a death rate of 1.5 percent.    TIME Magazine Coronavirus Special Report: What To Know and Do About The Global Pandemic [20 March 2020] 58-page TIME Inc. 10x8 single issue magazine [3/2020] for $14.90 2020 Tuesday March 24:    The number of confirmed infections in the U.S. reached more than 54,000, with about 800 deaths. 2020 Tuesday March 31:    The U.S. trumpvirus death toll jumped above 4,000, surpassing that of China, the first country hit in the pandemic; for the first time, more than 700 people died in the United States in one day. New York State is the deadliest hot spot in the U.S., with about 1,550 deaths statewide, more than 1,000 of them in New York City. The total number of infections in the country reached nearly 190,000, with more than 800,000 cases worldwide. 2020 April 2:    More than one million cases worldwide of the COVID-19 coronavirus have been confirmed, according to data compiled by researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. 2020 Saturday April 4:    The United States reported 1,344 deaths from the novel COVID-19 coronavirus, the country's highest number of fatalities in one day since the outbreak began; there are now more than 300,000 confirmed infections nationwide with the death toll surpassing 8,000. 2020 April:    Tthe Trump administration terminated an N.I.H. grant to research how coronaviruses spread from bats to humans. 2020 Wed June 10:    The number of coronavirus cases recorded in the United States surpassed 2 million, with about 113,000 deaths. 2020 June 29: TEDtalk interview with Bill Gates about the coronavirus pandemic   • watch video [42:58] online at TEDtalk website {may require different browser} 2020 Mon July 6:    The United States reached 132,979 deaths from coronavirus and 3,040,833 confirmed cases. 2020 Tue July 7:    Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro tested positive for coronavirus. 2020 July 15: Wal-Mart, Inc. Page will require face masks at all U.S. stores. 2020 July 19:    The peak seven-day average of daily new infections was recorded as 67,902 cases. 2020 Sat Aug 1: The United States recorded more than 1,000 coronavirus fatalities in the previous 24-hour period for the 5th straight day; Johns Hopkins University logged more than 58,000 new infections in that same span. South Africa surpassed 500,000 cases after recording more than 10,000 in a single day; also the Philippines topped 100,000 infections. 2020 Sun Aug 9:    The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States surpassed 5 million, with about 163,000 deaths; the number of daily new infections appears to have leveled off, with the average over the last week hovering around 54,000. 2020 Fri Aug 21: N.A.T.O. (National Association of Theatre Owners) announced Cinema Safe industry member standards to combat the coronavirus epidemic in the U.S.A. More than 300 companies, comprising over 2,600 locations and more than 30,000 screens, are already signed on to the standards; members who comply are able to display the Cinema Safe badge and other graphics on their websites and at each theater location. By year end, the program was happening at 3,100 theater locations and 33,000 screens.                  2020 Sat Aug 22:    Data collected by Johns Hopkins University shows that the global death toll from the coronavirus surpassed 800,000, while the number of confirmed cases across the world shot past 23 million. 2020 Fri Aug 28:    Navajo Nation health officials say that a new death from COVID-19 brings the total there to 500 members. Other statistics are: 9,780 positive tests, 84,319 negative tests, and 7,032 reported recoveries. (The Navajo Reservation covers 71,000 km² or 27,413 square miles; the majority is in Arizona, with smaller portions in Utah & New Mexico.) 2020 Sat Aug 29:    The U.S. secret service revealed that agents are being tested before and after deployment to Trump rallies around the nation, with many dozens quarantined or found positive for trumpvirus; this has created manpower shortages so that agents are being transferred from Texas and other states to DC or North Dakota or New Hampshire. 2020 Sun Aug 30:    Data collected by Johns Hopkins University shows that global coronavirus cases surpassed 25 million, with more than 843,000 fatalities. The United States has the highest number of infections and deaths, and California became the first state to pass 700,000 cases, although its infection rate is declining sharply. India - the world's second most populous nation - now has the fastest-growing epidemic and registered 78,761 new cases, a single day record for the country that pushed its overall tally to 3.5 million infections. 2020 Sept 22:    Worldwide, more than 31 million coronavirus cases have been confirmed, with 965,000 deaths. 2020 Mon Sept 28:    The worldwide death toll from the coronavirus pandemic reached 1 million, with more than 33 million confirmed infections; about 205,000 people have died in the United States. 2020 Oct 2:    President Trump & wife Melania tested positive for the coronavirus and he was taken to Walter Reed Medical Center 'for a few days'. 2020 Oct 3:    India became the third country to record 100,000 coronavirus deaths. 2020 Oct 4:    Against his doctors' orders, President Trump left Walter Reed Hospital and went on a multi-vehicle 'joy ride' to wave at people along the route, endangering the lives & health of several Special Service agents. 2020 Oct 7: Broadway officials announced that the current theater district shutdown is extended through May 2021. 2020 Friday Oct 9:    The United States hit a 2-month coronavirus case high, reporting more than 58,000 coronavirus infections; and there are now more than 34,000 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 nationally, up 18 percent in the last two weeks. 2020 Oct 10:    More than ten thousand farmed minks in Utah have suddenly died of Covid-19, forcing affected sites to quarantine as the state veterinarian investigates the outbreak. (The mink pelts are mostly sold to China.) 2020 Wednesday Oct 14:    First Lady Melania Trump posted on her White House blog that President Trump's youngest son Barron, age 14, tested positive for coronavirus but did not show symptoms; in an initial test, he tested negative, and he is now again testing negative. 2020 Friday Oct 16:    The U.S. reported at least 69,000 new cases, the most in one day since July; cases of COVID-19 trumpvirus in U.S.A. reached another milestone: confirmed cases at 8,008,402, with confirmed U.S. deaths at 218,097. 2020 Wed Oct 21:    The New York Times reports that over the past week, there has been an average of 60,160 new cases per day, which is a 36 percent jump from the average two weeks ago and the highest rate since August 3rd. 2020 Oct 29 & 30:    Germany and France announced new national lockdowns, saying that they had lost control of the coronavirus; next day Belgium announced a new national lockdown. 2020 Nov 5: Nationwide lockdown in Greece. 2020 Tue Dec 1: The National Retail Federation said that sales slumped over the Black Friday weekend compared to the same period last year. About 186 million people bought something online or in stores from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, a slight dip from 190 million in 2019. The average shopper spent $312 this year, down from $362 last year. These numbers over the weekend that marks the start of the holiday shopping season signal possible trouble ahead due to the coronavirus pandemic. 2020 Thu Dec 3:    The U.S. surpassed 275,000 coronavirus deaths as 12 states set daily death records. 2020 Thu Dec 3: Dictionary.com announced that its Word of the Year for 2020 is ... pandemic. 2020 Sat Dec 5: Russia launched its nationwide coronavirus immunization effort in Moscow, where thousands of workers in the city's health, education, and social services systems have signed up to receive the vaccine at seventy vaccinations facilities throughout the capital. The Russian two-shot Sputnik V vaccine has been the subject of international scrutiny since it was registered in Russia while still undergoing mass testing, but developers say it causes no serious side effects and is more than 90 percent effective, a rate similar to Moderna's and Pfizer's vaccine candidates. The Russian government says that more than 100,000 people have already received the vaccine, including top officials and military personnel. 2020 Dec 10:    The U.S. reported more than 3,300 coronavirus deaths, setting a single-day record above 3,000 for the second straight day; the national total death count surpassed 292,000. 2020 Dec 11: The Food and Drug Administration authorized the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech for emergency use, a potentially major step toward ending the coronavirus pandemic. The still-experimental vaccine, which was found to be more than 90 percent effective in late-stage clinical trials and does not appear to cause severe side effects, is expected to be rolled out for health care workers and long-term care facility residents in the coming days, the first phase of what should be the largest vaccination campaign in U.S. history. Immediate distribution will be limited, with about 3 million doses expected in the initial shipments, but the goal is to vaccinate 20 million people by the end of December, another 30 million in January, and another 50 million in February. 2020 Dec 14: Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte imposed a tough new five-week nationwide lockdown, saying that schools, museums, gyms, and non-essential shops will close down at midnight until January 19th. 2020 Dec 14:    More terrible coronavirus milestones for U.S.A.: 16,388,504 confirmed US cases and 300,267 confirmed US deaths and 3,054 more Americans died, another daily death toll exceeding 3,000. That's 77 more victims than died on 9/11, 72 more people than died as a result of Hurricane Maria in 2017, and 651 more people than died at Pearl Harbor in 1941. 2020 December:    77,124 people in the U.S. died of coronavirus this month, making it the deadliest month of the pandemic. 2020 Tue Dec 29:    California Gov. Gavin Newsom extended stay-at-home orders for Southern California and San Joaquin Valley as the two regions' hospital intensive-care units remained perilously close to zero capacity due to spiking coronavirus cases; he warned residents to brace for a 'surge on top of a surge' of coronavirus cases as new cases from holiday travel emerge. The state added more than 300,000 cases in the seven-day period that ended Dec. 22. Los Angeles, San Diego, and Fresno set records for new infections; at one Los Angeles hospital, five overflow tents outside have been filled, leaving staffers to put gurneys in the hospital's gift shop, chapel, and conference room. Nationwide, COVID-19 hospitalizations reached a record high of 121,235 on Monday. Tennessee had the highest per capita rate of infections. 2020 Dec 31:    77,124 people died of coronavirus in the U.S. in December, making it the deadliest month of the pandemic. Also, the United States managed to administer fewer than 2.8 million coronavirus vaccine shots before 2020 ended, far below the goal of 20 million that federal officials had set for the year. Selected  Entries  For  The  Year  2 0 2 1 2021 Sun Jan 3:    The United States surpassed 350,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths per Johns Hopkins University; there have been more than 20 million recorded infections in the country - both figures lead the world (as per capita statistics). 2021 Wed Jan 6:    The U.S. coronavirus epidemic hit a record of near 4,000 deaths, the most yet in a single day. 2021 Wed Jan 6: Violent pro-Trump terrorists stormed the U.S. Capitol Building. Why is this political event included here? One of the lasting impacts will be as a 'super-spreader' event for trumpvirus. 2021 Thu Jan 7:    U.S. health officials reported a record 4,051 coronavirus deaths, the second single-day record in a row, and the first time U.S. COVID-19 deaths had ever exceeded 4,000 in a single day. In California, more than 1,000 people have died of the virus in the past two days. 2021 Mon Jan 11:    Worldwide coronavirus pandemic statistics update: 90,990,108 cases and 1,948,269 deaths. 2021 Tue Jan 12:    Coronavirus deaths in the United States reached another record high, with a stunning 4,327 people dying in a single day; also 229,712 more Americans were newly confirmed as infected, and there are 131,326 people hospitalized with the virus. 2021 Thu Jan 21:    President Biden signed a flurry of executive orders on COVID-19 Day aimed at fighting coronavirus infections, and promised a 'full-scale wartime effort' against the pandemic; the orders called for requiring masks on interstate planes, trains, and buses, and for quarantining international travelers entering the country. "History is going to measure whether we are up to the task," Biden said. The new administration released its 200-page "National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness" in a bid to intensify a nationwide campaign against COVID-19. new entries are on Spirit of America's Wuhan Coronavirus Pandemic Timeline, 2021 Page latest Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus info & map at Johns Hopkins University “The Pandemic Is A Portal” commentary video [1:41] by Arundhati Roy, April 2020 advocacy group Guarding Against Pandemics    "The Pandemic Enlightenment" [indep Oct 2020]   Credible report on the COVID-19 situation at this time • Produced by Harrison Engle, Karen Cantrell, Carlos Amezcua, Rachel Wang; directed by James Zeffirelli & Niko Ren; written by Niko Ren & Sheri Determan; narrated by Dax Phelan; featuring broadcaster Carlos Amezcua, Karen Cantrell, actress Kelly LeBrock, Paul N.J. Ottosson, Dr. Douglas S. Harrington MD, Barack Obama, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Arnold Schwarzenegger, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterras DVD/Blu-ray not yet available • no credits at IMDb watch 10/2020 full movie [24:01] online at YouTube jump to Spirit of America's Wuhan Coronavirus Pandemic Timeline, 2021 Page                                                                   Image  Gallery                                                                                                                                                             Fiction  &  Non-Fiction  Books This section got real, real big real fast and so was cut to its own page in September 2020.                                                                   here on the Spirit of America Wuhan Coronavirus Pandemic Timeline Pages for 2020: top of page • 2020 - epidemic begins • U.S. national emergency • image gallery for 2021 & 2022: top of page • year 2021 • year 2022 • RECENT EVENTS • 2021 image gallery Fiction & Non-fiction Books Page 2020-2021 Wuhan Coronavirus Epidemic in New Mexico Timeline Page {because this is where I happen to live} Epidemic / Pandemic Film Festival at Magic Lantern Video & Book Store Spirit of America Bookstore's U.S. History Timeline Pages Ancient Times - 3500 B.C.E to 1490 C.E.    •    1491-1800    •    1801-1900    •    1901-1930    •    1931-1950 •    1951-1968    •    1969-2000    •    2001-2010    •    2011-2016    •    2017-2018    •    2019-2020    • 2021 to present + recent    •    The Looming Future?

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