from Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
Ridgewood NJ, Six months ago, in late December 2019, reports emerged about 27 cases of unidentified pneumonia in Wuhan, China, potentially linked to a local market. At that time, very little was known about the disease, pathogen, or origin of the outbreak, and while we have learned much over the past 6 months, many mysteries remain.
The pandemic has grown to more than 10 million cases and 500,000 deaths across nearly every country around the world. As of July 1, the WHO reported 10.36 million cases and 508,055 deaths worldwide, covering more than 200 countries and territories. Among these countries and territories, 86 are reporting “Community Transmission”—the WHO’s highest tier—which indicates “larger outbreaks of local transmission,” “large numbers of cases not linkable to transmission chains,” and “multiple unrelated clusters in several areas of the country.”
