January

The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China, was sealed off on 1 January, 2020. Several people had previously been admitted to hospital with pneumonia-like symptoms, who had connections with this live animal market. Samples from infected patients' lungs were analysed by genetic sequencing companies and their findings were relayed to China's Centre for Disease Control (CDC) and local health authorities, but not made public. The pneumonia was initially thought to be caused by a SARS-like virus: SARS stands for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome; SARS infected almost 8,100 people in 2002-04 and claimed 774 lives around the world. The viral pneumonia turned out not to be SARS, although the cause was similar - a new coronavirus. When George F Gao, the Director of the Chinese CDC, identified the new coronavirus, he stated that it was not highly transmissible. China did not confirm there was human-to-human transmission of the new disease until 20 January.

February

March

The Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic on 11 March, 2020. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson started a three week lockdown on the evening of 23 March.

April

16 April, lockdown #2.

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December