On December 31, 2019, Health organizations in China confirmed that dozens of people in Wuhan, China were being treated for pneumonia from an unknown source. Many of these people had visited the live animal market in Wuhan. Medical authorities in Wuhan said there wasn’t any evidence of this virus spreading from one person to another. Then on January 11, 2020, China reported its first death due to this pneumonia, called the novel coronavirus. This death was of a 61-year-old man who had visited the live animal market in Wuhan. Ten days later in the United States, a man in his 30s from Washington was diagnosed with the novel coronavirus. This man had traveled to Wuhan, China and was the 1st confirmed case of the virus in the United States.

On January 23, 2020, China imposed a lockdown due to rapidly increasing numbers of the novel coronavirus cases. Flight from and to China were canceled. About a week later WHO (World Health Organization) declared this a “public health emergency of international concern.” Following this, in early February, the Diamond Princess cruise ship off the coast of Yokohama, Japan, was held in quarantine and passengers were tested for the virus. The number of confirmed cases in the cruise was over 700 making it one of the largest outbreaks outside of China. The virus was soon renamed from coronavirus to COVID-19 to avoid naming after a specific location or group of people.

On 26, 2020 the 1st case of COVID-19 was found in the United States, which had no travel connection to Wuhan, China or any other outbreak area. That day 2 deaths occurred in Washington and these were recorded as the first deaths due to COVID-19 in the United States. Following this, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) lifted restrictions from the virus testing, which means anyone could be tested for the virus.

There have been many more cases of COVID-19 across the world that have been reported. The numbers are increasing every day. The World Health Organization is continuously reminding people all across the world to be prepared for COVID- 19 even if it has not entered their region yet. Their recent tweet said, “All countries should increase their level of preparedness, alert and response to identify, manage and care for new cases of #COVID19 bit.ly/2TvK5ML” Also on March 7, 2020, the WHO tweeted: “As of today’s reports, the global number of #COVID19 confirmed cases has surpassed 100K. WHO reminds all countries & communities that the spread of this #coronavirus can be significantly slowed or even reversed through robust containment & control activities bit.ly/39xAquF”

In the United States
As of March 9, 2020, 12:00 pm, there have been a total of 423 cases of COVID-19 in the United States. There have been 19 total deaths, and 35 total states reporting COVID-19 cases.72 of these cases are travel-related, 29 are due to person-to-person spread, and 322 are still under investigation. There have also been 8 people that have recovered from the virus. Also, As of the evening of March 6, 72 state and local public health labs in 48 states and the District of Columbia have successfully verified and currently using COVIS-19 diagnostic tests. For more information and statistics visit cdc.gov- US Statistics

COVID-19 in Missouri
In Missouri, there has been one travel-related case. A female who studied in Italy was known to have symptoms and tested positive. She is the first COVID-19 case in Missouri

Precautions Are Already Being Taken
When search topics related to COVID-19 are searched in google, the first thing users see is the SOS Alert for COVID-19 and many trusted resources and links. Youtube displays a link on its home page to the World Health Organization. Tweeter displays a link on its homepage to the Centers for Disease Control. Many of these links encourage users to take precautions and update them on what is happening.

Protect Yourself

Wash your hands frequently
Washing your hands with soap and water or using alcohol-based hand rub kills viruses that may be on your hands.

Maintain social distancing
Maintain at least 3 feet of distance between you and anyone who is sick, coughing or sneezing. When someone coughs or sneezes they spray small liquid droplets from their nose or mouth which may contain the virus. If you are too close, you can breathe in the droplets, including the COVID-19 virus if the person coughing has the disease.

Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth
touching many different surfaces can pick up viruses and once your hand is contaminated it can spread to your eyes, nose or mouth, from here the virus can enter your body and make you sick.

Practice Respiratory Hygiene
Make sure you and people around you follow good hygiene by covering their mouths and noses with bent elbow or tissue when coughing or sneezing. Dispose uses tissues immediately.

If you have fever, cough and difficulty breathing, seek medical care early
The COVID-19 has been known to show symptoms in a person weeks after the person was actually is infected. This means that that person could have spread the virus to all the people he or she was in contact with without knowing he was infected.

Stay informed and alert
COVID-19 cases are increasing rapidly and new information about this virus is being released every single day. This means that you should be up to date on what is happening around the world and how it affects you. But this does not mean that you should panic. Panicking will only make things worse.

Trusted Resources

World Health Organization

Centers for Disease Control

Association of Public Health laboratories

COVID-19 Information in Missouri

Helpful Articles

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak
Rolling Updates on coronavirus disease (COVID- 19)

Farmington High School Peachjar Flyers- Novel Coronavirus

Farmington High School Peachjar Flyers- The Flu: A Guide For Parents

The Washington Post- Why it’s so hard to pin down the risks of dying from coronavirus

WHO statement on cases of COVID-19 surpassing 100 000

Video- What You May Need to Have on Hand

Please follow the World Health Organization on Instagram and Twitter for the daily and latest updates on COVID-19