January 20, 2023 – After the COVID-19 pandemic began in Wuhan, China in late 2019, health officials all over the world frightened about when the virus would cross their country’s borders.
In the United States, it happened three years ago, on January 20, 2020, when the primary case of COVID-19 within the country was diagnosed in Snohomish County, WA, north of Seattle.
“The Washington patient with confirmed 2019-nCoV infection returned to the United States from Wuhan on January 15, 2020,” the CDC said in a Press release at the moment. “The patient visited a medical facility in Washington state where he was treated for the illness. Based on the patient's travel history and symptoms, medical professionals suspected this new coronavirus.”
A sample was sent overnight to the CDC, where laboratory tests confirmed the diagnosis for the person in his 30s.
End of February 2020 CDC reported the primary COVID death within the country, again in Washington state. The fatality was a person in his 50s.
Since then, the virus has spread worldwide. In the United States, nearly 102 million cases have been diagnosed and there are greater than 1.1 million COVID-related deaths – probably the most cases and deaths of any country, based on the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.
There are greater than 668 million cases and 6.7 million COVID-related deaths worldwide.
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared a pandemic.
Maria Van Kerkhove, PhD, WHO’s technical lead for the COVID-19 response, said the virus has not settled right into a predictable pattern, based on CNN.
“We couldn't have needed this level of death and devastation, but we have to deal with it and do our best to minimize the impact in the future,” she said on the “Conversations on Health Care” podcast.