The WHO declared another distinctive variant, JN.1, had emerged as a 'variant of interest'.

The Public Health Emergency of International Concern for COVID-19 ended.

The Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) had spread to 57 countries.

Cluster 5, a variant of SARS-CoV-2 among minks and mink farmers in Denmark, was assessed to no longer be circulating among humans in Denmark.

The first COVID-19 vaccine was granted regulatory approval by the UK medicines regulator MHRA.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom warned about the long-term effects of COVID-19, describing the vast spectrum of symptoms as 'really concerning'.

The United States had overtaken China and Italy with the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the world.

Italy overtook China as the country with the most deaths due to COVID-19.

Italy had its first confirmed cases of COVID-19, two tourists from China.

The WHO declared COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

Human-to-human transmission of COVID-19 was confirmed by the WHO and Chinese authorities.

The number of COVID-19 cases in Hubei had increased to at least 266.

Vision Medicals informed the Wuhan Central Hospital and the Chinese CDC of the results of the test, showing a new coronavirus.

Vision Medicals informed the Wuhan Central Hospital and the Chinese CDC of the results of the test, showing a new coronavirus. Doctor Zhang Jixian informed the Wuhan Jianghan CDC about the pneumonia cluster.

A person in France was found to have had the virus, as determined by retesting of prior samples.

A pneumonia cluster of unknown cause was observed and treated by Doctor Zhang Jixian in Hubei Provincial Hospital.

Wuhan Central Hospital sent a bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BAL) sample from an unresolved clinical case to sequencing company Vision Medicals.

The number of COVID-19 cases in Hubei had increased to sixty.

The earliest onset of symptoms as officially reported by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The earliest date of onset of symptoms for the first confirmed human infections of COVID-19, as reported in a study published in January 2020 in The Lancet.