THE COVID-19 virus mainly spreads between people through close contact and via respiratory droplets produced from coughs or sneezes. 

February 2020

Epidemiological studies estimate that each infection results in 5,7 new ones when no preventive measures are taken. 

On February 14 2020, the scourge was confirmed to have spread to Africa, with the first confirmed case reported in Egypt.

On February 19, Iran reported its first confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections in Qom, where the Shia shrines remained open to pilgrims until March 16 and although travel between cities was restricted, heavy traffic between cities continued ahead of Nowruz — the Persian New Year.  

By February 28, more than 10 countries had traced their cases back to Qom in Iran. 

On February 26 2020, the pandemic was confirmed to have reached South America when Brazil confirmed a case in São Paulo.  

By April 3, all countries and territories in South America had recorded at least one case of COVID-19 infection. 

At the end of February 2020, the first confirmed case in Africa was announced in Nigeria. Within three months, the virus had spread throughout the African continent. 

Lesotho, the last African sovereign state to remain free of the virus, reported one case on May 13.  

By May 26, most African countries were experiencing community transmission.

March 2020

By March 2020, while COVID-19 infections were reported to be largely under control in China, with only minor outbreaks, Italy, Iran, South Korea and Japan reported increasing numbers of cases, compelling WHO to declare the novel corona virus outbreak a ‘pandemic’; forcing the entire world into ‘lockdown’, including Zimbabwe, with containment measures including quarantines, stay-at-home orders and curfews, recommended by WHO as “…short-term measures to re-organise, regroup, rebalance resources, and protect exhausted health workers.”

On March 3 2020, the Iranian Parliament was shut down after 23 of its 290 Members tested positive for the virus. 

One hundred deaths were reported in Iran on March 15, the most in a single day.  

By March 23 2020, Iran was recording 50 new cases every hour and one death every 10 minutes due to the coronavirus.  

By July 2020, 25 million people were estimated to be been infected.

On March 6, former US President Donald Trump signed the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, which provided US$8,3 billion in emergency funding for federal agencies to respond to the outbreak.

On March 13 2020, as the number of new cases across Europe became greater than those in China, WHO was compelled to declare Europe the epicentre of the pandemic.  

All across Europe, cases of infections doubled over periods of three-to-four days, with some countries, mostly those at earlier stages of detection, showing doubling of infections every two days. 

On March 16, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson advised people to work from home and avoid venues such as pubs, restaurants, theatres, non-essential travel and social contact.  

On March 17 2020, 12 Iranian politicians and government officials died from the virus.  

By 17 March, apart from the Vatican City, all countries within Europe had a confirmed case of COVID-19 with at least one death reported in all European countries.  

Montenegro was the last European country to report at least one case. 

Russia, France, Spain, the UK, and Italy had the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases. 

As of March 18, more than 250 million people were in lockdown in Europe.  

On the same day, the British Government started enforcing social distancing and quarantine measures, although it was earlier criticised for their lack of response to concerns faced by the public.  

On March 19, Italy overtook China as the country with the most coronavirus-related deaths in the world after reporting 3 405 fatalities from the pandemic.  

Italy received nine military planes with medical equipment from Russia on March 22.

Between March 20-23 , the UK Government ordered all leisure establishments to close as soon as possible, banned multiple gatherings of people and restricted non-essential travel and outdoor activities. 

Unlike previous measures, these restrictions were enforceable by police through fines and dispersal of gatherings.  

As most non-essential businesses were ordered to close, the government promised to prevent unemployment.

By March 26 2020, the lockdowns resulted in 1,7 billion people worldwide under some form of restrictions. 

These increased to 3,9 billion people by the first week of April — over half the world’s population. Only essential services remained open throughout most of the world – an unprecedented situation, even during war times. 

By March 26, the US overtook both China and Italy with the highest number of confirmed cases in the world. 

In March 2020, Zimbabwe reported the first official COVID-19 loss in the country. 

April 2020

On April 19, Italy reported 433 deaths, the lowest deaths in the country in seven days.  In response, after six weeks of restrictions, some businesses were asking for a relaxing of the lockdown 

On April 24, a promising vaccine trial began in England, with the government pledging over £50 million towards research.  A number of temporary critical care hospitals were built; the first to operate was a 4 000-bed NHS Nightingale Hospital, London, constructed for over nine days.

By April 30 2020, cases were reported in all Asian countries. Despite being the first area of the world hit by the outbreak, the early wide-scale response to the pandemic by some Asian states allowed them to fare comparatively well, particularly Mongolia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam.  

Singapore, as of January 29 2021, had recorded the lowest fatality rate in the world. The pandemic had direct dire consequences in Japan, where suicides increased to 2 153 in October.  

Due to lockdowns and isolation from family members, the pandemic also worsened mental health issues in Japan. 

By late April 2020, around 300 million people were under lockdown in nations of Europe, including, but not limited to, Italy, Spain, France and the UK, while around 200 million people were under lockdown in Latin America. 

Nearly 300 million people, or about 90 percent of the population, were under some form of lockdown in the US, around 100 million people in the Philippines, about 59 million people in SA and 1,3 billion people in India. 

Dr Michelina Andreucci is a Zimbabwean-Italian researcher, industrial design consultant. She is a published author in her field. For comments e-mail: linamanucci@gmail.com.