Table A.4.

Summary of the COVID-19 pandemic timeline provided by WHO. This table presents the main events between the beginning of the outbreak and the declaration of the pandemic by WHO.

Date	Event
2019-12-31	WHO’s Country Office in China picked up a media statement by the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission on cases of
	“viral pneumonia” in Wuhan
2020-01-09	WHO reported that Chinese authorities have determined that the outbreak is caused by a novel coronavirus.
2020-01-11	Chinese media reported the first death.
2020-01-14	WHO said additional investigation was needed to ascertain the presence of human-to-human transmission.
2020-01-15	Japan’s first confirmed case, person who traveled to Wuhan. Second confirmed case detected outside China.
2020-01-19	WHO Western Pacific Regional Office stated there was evidence of limited human-to-human transmission.
2020-01-21	United States reported its first confirmed case (first case in the Americas).
2020-01-22	WHO Director-General convened an IHR Emergency Committee (EC) charged with advising as to whether the
	outbreak constituted a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). The Committee was not able to
	reach a conclusion.
2020-01-24	France informed of three cases, all of whom had traveled from Wuhan (first confirmed cases in Europe).
2020-01-29	United Arab Emirates reported the first cases in the Middle East.
2020-01-30	WHO Director-General reconvened the IHR EC. The EC advised the Director-General that the outbreak now met the criteria
	for a PHEIC. The Director-General declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a PHEIC. At that time there were 98 cases in
	18 countries outside China (four with evidence of human-to-human transmission).
2020-02-11	WHO announced that the disease would be named COVID-19.
2020-03-07	Number of confirmed cases surpasses 100,000 globally.
2020-03-11	WHO made the assessment that COVID-19 could be characterized as a pandemic and “called for countries to take urgent
	and aggressive action”.
2020-04-04	WHO reported that over 1 million cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed worldwide.