From one case in Wuhan to 100 million patients in 391 days
Since the first Covid-19 patient was reported in China’s Wuhan city 391 days ago, the number of cases across the world hit 100 million on Monday.
As of 11.45am on Tuesday, 100,285,420 patients were confirmed across the world, of whom 2,149,460 have died and 72,292,827 have recovered. Nearly 26 million patients are still under treatment, with 110,260 in severe condition.
The top five countries with the highest number of cases are the US with 25.86 million, India with 10.68 million, Brazil 8.87 million, Russia 3.74 million and the UK with 3.67 million cases. Thailand was ranked 123rd with 14,646 cases.
According to data released by the Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation Ministry, the coronavirus took 311 days to infect the first 50 million people, while the remaining 50 million were infected in just 80 days. Statistics also show that some 10 million people were infected in just 16 days.
Official statements from the Chinese government to the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that the first confirmed case had been diagnosed on December 8, 2019, followed by a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan.
Then several countries, including Thailand, began announcing new cases and on January 30, WHO declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
WHO then named this new disease caused by the novel coronavirus Covid-19. It said this name was chosen to avoid inaccuracy and stigma, which is why it did not refer to a geographical location, an animal, an individual or group of people.
The WHO declared the Covid-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020.