Covid-19, the highly-contagious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020.
Today’s (March 11) story of what happened this day in Science, Technology, Astronomy, and Space Exploration history.
The first known case of Covid-19 was identified in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, China, in December 2019. On March 11, 2020, the disease was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO).
When an infectious disease occurs widespread disease in a community at a particular time, it’s called an epidemic. If it’s prevalent over a country, a continent, or the whole world, then it is a pandemic.

Covid-19 was, and unfortunately, still is, a seismic event that has affected the lives of millions of people. It transmits when people breathe in air contaminated by droplets and small airborne particles containing the virus.
Globally, as of 5:08 pm CET, 10 March 2022, there have been 450,229,635 confirmed cases, including 6,019,085 deaths, reported to WHO. As of 5 March 2022, a total of 10,704,043,684 vaccine doses have been administered.
Please keep in mind that each of those millions of deaths has been a tragic loss for someone or some family.
March 11 in Science, Technology, Astronomy, and Space Exploration history
- 2020: Covid-19 was declared a pandemic
- 1960: Pioneer 5 was launched
Sources
- COVID-19 on Wikipedia
- Novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on the World Healt Organization (WHO) website
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