The classification of the spread of the coronavirus as a pandemic marks the first anniversary today. The World Health Organization (WHO) made this classification on March 11, 2020.
The term pandemic is made up of the ancient Greek words “pan” for “everything” and “demos” for “people”. The WHO defines a pandemic as a situation in which the entire world population is potentially exposed to a pathogen – and there is a risk that “part of it will become ill”.
However, the WHO had already declared its highest alert level because of the pathogen on January 30, 2020 by declaring the spread of SARS-CoV-2 to be a “public health emergency of international interest”.
Since the first infections were registered in China in December 2019, more than 117 million infections have been detected worldwide to date. More than 2.6 million infected people died.
