coronavirus special
A nurse starts her shift at the Cremona Hospital, Milan, Italy. Photo: Paolo Miranda/AFP
COVID-19: How it happened
We take a look at how the global
pandemic began, how it spread,
and how countries responded.
By Conor Burke
T
he COVID-19 pandemic came to
light on 31 December 2019 with an
alert to the WHO China office, and
the speed with which it has spread across
the globe has been rivalled only by how
rapidly it has changed the lives of billions of
people worldwide.
As countries head into a period of
lockdown, economies tank and people
lose jobs, we find ourselves in the midst of
a crisis with no end in sight.
At the time of publication, the Australian
government has announced a slew of new
restrictive measures on once-taken-for-
granted freedoms.
From midnight on March 25, Australians
were no longer able to go to weddings
with more than five people present
(including the couple and the celebrant)
or attend funerals with more than
10 mourners, and Australians are now
officially banned from leaving the country.
No more real estate inspections,
auctions, cinemas, pubs, swimming pools,
tattoos, saunas, gyms or museums.
Staying in and keeping socially distanced
from friends and family has already
become the norm, but how did we
get here?
16 agedcareinsite.com.au
WHAT IS COVID-19 AND WHERE DID IT
COME FROM?
Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family
of viruses that cause illnesses from the
common cold to more severe diseases
such as Middle East respiratory syndrome
(MERS-CoV) and severe acute respiratory
syndrome (SARS-CoV), and this particular
strain causes pneumonia-like symptoms.
COVID-19 is an infectious disease
caused by a newly discovered coronavirus,
and it spreads primarily through droplets of
saliva or discharge from the nose when an
infected person coughs or sneezes.
The origins of this new coronavirus are
unclear. However, scientists believe it may
have mutated and jumped species from
a bat or pangolin (a scaly armadillo-like
mammal), much like the cases of SARS
(2003) and MERS (2012), which found
their origins in civet cats and camels
respectively.
Scientists have ruled out rumours of
a lab-based origin for the coronavirus,
and have identified markers in the way
COVID-19 reacts with the human genome
which suggest that it is a result of natural
selection and not bioengineering.
Cases were first identified in Wuhan,
the capital of Hubei province in Central
China, which has a population of more
than 11 million. On January 7, officials
announced they had identified a new virus,
according to the WHO. On January 11,
China announced its first death, and
two days later the first foreign case was
confirmed in Thailand.
HOW THE VIRUS SPREAD
By January 23, Wuhan had been effectively
shut down, with all planes, trains, buses,
subways and other forms of transport
cancelled and stopped from leaving the
city. At this point, only 581 cases had been
confirmed globally (571 in China) with
seven deaths, all in Hubei.
January 25 saw the first Australian cases,
as four men, three from NSW and one from
Victoria, presented with symptoms. All four
had recently flown back to Australia from
China and had been in Wuhan.
By January 30, the WHO declared the
new coronavirus a “global emergency”.
CONFUSION REIGNS
As the virus started to gain a hold in
Australia, the states, territories and various
health bodies argued about how best to
tackle a crisis not seen before in modern
history.
In February, the Royal Australian College
of General Practitioners (RACGP) and its
president Dr Harry Nespolon criticised the
government’s response to the outbreak,
saying the lack of government planning
was “risking people’s health”.
“Australia needs to implement a national
plan for dealing with potential pandemics,”
he said. “This isn’t the first and won’t be the
last. If we don’t address these problems
now, we’re risking people’s health.
“While we have a national plan for
pandemic influenza, it has not been
implemented. Not implementing a plan is
as good as not having a plan.”