Five years ago today, an announcement was made to the world and everything changed
manchestereveningnews.co.ukFive years ago today, a global announcement was made that saw the world change. On January 30, in 2020, the director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency of international concern - the WHO's highest level of alarm.
In the years that followed, the virus came to shape every aspect of our lives, sometimes in surprising ways. At the time of the announcement, scientists had been monitoring the spread of the "previously unknown pathogen" for several weeks, after it was initially discovered in China.
On the day a global health emergency was declared, 18 additional countries had recorded less than 100 cases between them. Only eight cases of human-to-human transmission had been found in four of those countries - Germany, Japan, Vietnam and the US.
While the UK was not yet on the list of countries the virus had spread to at the point, it recorded its first cases just 24 hours later.
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