Natural Disasters & Epidemics In The Year 2020

Jakarta floods in Indonesia killing 66 people

Three months into the COVID-19 epidemic Chinese President Xi Jinping finally travels to Wuhan, epicenter of the outbreak as the rate of daily new infections declines in China falls to 19 new cases and 17 deaths

Coronavirus COVID-19 declared a pandemic by the head of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus , with 121,564 cases worldwide and 4,373 deaths

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzō Abe announces postponement of Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games until summer of 2021 because of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic

Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro downplays the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic saying "its not all its being made out to be"

NY Governor Andrew Cuomo says “I believe the worst is over if we continue to be smart,” about the COVID-19 pandemic in New York as death toll passes 10,000

German Chancellor Angela Merkel warns this is "not the end phase but still just the beginning" of the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic

Barack Obama criticizes the US government's handling of the pandemic during an online address to graduates, saying officials "aren't even pretending to be in charge"

UN human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet says pandemic exposing "endemic inequalities" around the world, cites death of George Floyd and higher death toll for ethnic minorities

NY Governor Andrew Cuomo announces people arriving from nine states hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic will have to isolate for two weeks

PM Boris Johnson announces that the UK has reached a 'perilous turning point' in the pandemic as he announces new restrictions

Persian Gulf crisis: Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 is mistakenly shot down by Iran's armed forces shortly after takeoff from Tehran Imam Khomeini Airport, killing all 176 people on board.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The World Health Organization (WHO) declares the outbreak of the disease as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, the sixth time that this measure has been invoked since 2009.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The World Health Organization (WHO) names the disease COVID-19.

[COVID-19 pandemic] Italy places 16 million people in quarantine, more than a quarter of its population, in a bid to stop the spread of COVID-19.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The World Health Organization declares the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The government of Nepal announces that Mount Everest will be closed to climbers and the public for the rest of the season due to concerns from the COVID-19 pandemic in Asia.

[COVID-19 pandemic] European leaders close the EU's external and Schengen borders for at least 30 days in an effort to curb the COVID-19 pandemic.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The Euro 2020 and 2020 Copa América association football tournaments are postponed until the summer of 2021 by UEFA and CONMEBOL respectively.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The European Broadcasting Union announces that the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 will be cancelled due to COVID-19 in Europe, the first cancellation in the contest's 64-year history.

[COVID-19 pandemic] Solidarity trial, a WHO-sponsored group dedicated to finding a cure against COVID-19, is announced by Director-General of WHO Tedros Adhanom.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The worldwide death toll from COVID-19 surpasses 10,000 as the total number of cases reaches a quarter of a million.

[COVID-19 pandemic] Bhadla Solar Park is commissioned and becomes world's largest solar park.

[COVID-19 pandemic] India goes into lockdown to contain COVID-19. The total number of people in the world facing some form of pandemic-related movement restriction now exceeds 2.6 billion, a third of the global population.

[COVID-19 pandemic] Chinese Premier Li Keqiang reports that the domestically transmitted epidemic was "basically blocked" and it is now under control.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The International Olympic Committee and Japan suspend the 2020 Summer Olympics until 2021. On March 30, the Summer Olympics are rescheduled from July 23 to August 8, 2021.

[COVID-19 pandemic] Global COVID-19 cases reach 500,000, with nearly 23,000 deaths confirmed.

[COVID-19 pandemic] Militants in the Philippines, Syria, Yemen, and Libya agree to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres' call for a ceasefire; some accept medical aid for themselves and civilians in their communities. Guterres also asked wealthy countries to provide $2 billion to aid in fighting the virus. Colombia and Venezuela discussed a common response to the global pandemic, and the UAE airlifts aid to Iran.

[COVID-19 pandemic] China reports 130 asymptomatic cases of COVID-19, its first reported asymptomatic cases.

[COVID-19 pandemic] Yemen's internationally recognised government releases more than 470 of its prisoners amid concerns of the spread of the virus in Yemen's overcrowded jails. The United Nations Human Rights Council has called for the release of all political prisoners.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 1 million worldwide.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The first case of COVID-19 in a zoo animal is reported: a four-year-old female Malayan tiger at the Bronx Zoo in New York City.

[COVID-19 pandemic] King Mohammed VI of Morocco pardons 5,654 prisoners and orders new measures to protect inmates from COVID-19.

[COVID-19 pandemic] YouTube says it will remove videos promoting a conspiracy theory linking 5G to COVID-19, while "borderline content" will be removed from search results. The decision comes after four more mobile phone masts are set on fire, and broadband engineers have received threats, in several UK cities.

[COVID-19 pandemic] Japan declares a state of emergency in response to COVID-19 and finalises a stimulus package worth 108 trillion yen (US$990 billion), equal to 20% of the country's GDP.

[COVID-19 pandemic] China ends the lockdown in Wuhan, with people allowed to leave the city for the first time in 76 days.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The Saudi-led coalition declares a unilateral ceasefire in its operations against Houthi forces in Yemen in accordance with United Nations-led efforts.

Kivu Ebola epidemic: The Democratic Republic of the Congo reports the first case of Ebola since February 2020. The outbreak has killed more than 2,200 people since August 2018.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The death toll from COVID-19 exceeds 100,000 globally, a ten-fold increase from March 20.

[COVID-19 pandemic] EU finance ministers agree on a €540 billion loan package to alleviate the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

[COVID-19 pandemic] Pope Francis livestreams the Urbi et Orbi blessing for Easter; it is the second blessing in a month, with the first taking place on March 27 during a special prayer service for the end of the pandemic.

[COVID-19 pandemic] OPEC and allies strike a deal to cut oil production by 9.7 million barrels per day, the largest such cut agreed upon, starting May 1.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says it expects the world economy to shrink 3%, the worst contraction since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

[COVID-19 pandemic] U.S. president Donald Trump announces that the U.S. will suspend funding towards the World Health Organization (WHO) pending an investigation of its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and its relationship with China.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 2 million worldwide.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The 2020 Tour de France is delayed until August 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[COVID-19 pandemic] China revises the COVID-19 death toll in Wuhan upward, adding 1,290 more fatalities to bring the country's reported COVID-19 deaths to 4,632.

[COVID-19 pandemic] Europe surpasses 100,000 COVID-19-related deaths.

The U.N. Human Rights Office accuses Myanmar of carrying out daily airstrikes in the Rakhine and Chin states and that at least 32 civilians have been killed since March 23. The separatist Arakan Army unilaterally declared a month-long ceasefire to fight the pandemic, but the military rejected the ceasefire claiming a previous ceasefire had been reneged by the insurgents.

[COVID-19 pandemic] Unrest breaks out in Paris, Berlin and Vladikavkaz as opposition to COVID-19 lockdowns continue.

[COVID-19 pandemic] Facebook removes "pseudoscience" and "conspiracy theory" as options for targeted ads as criticism mounts against social media for its role in spreading misinformation about COVID-19.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The global death toll from COVID-19 exceeds 200,000.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The number of confirmed cases passes 3 million worldwide, while the number of confirmed cases in the U.S. passes 1 million.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The total number of recovered COVID-19 patients reaches 1 million worldwide, according to data from The Johns Hopkins University.

A team of British and Kenyan scientists announce the discovery of Microsporidia MB, a parasitic microbe in the Microsporidia fungi group that blocks mosquitos from carrying malaria, potentially paving the way for the control of malaria.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The U.K. death toll from COVID-19 becomes the highest in Europe at 32,313 after exceeding the death toll of 29,029 in Italy.

[COVID-19 pandemic] New evidence indicates that an Algerian-born French fishmonger, who had not traveled to China and did not have contact with any Chinese nationals, was treated for pneumonia from an unknown source on December 27, 2019, now identified as COVID-19.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 4 million worldwide.

[COVID-19 pandemic] Wuhan reports its first coronavirus cases in more than a month. An 89-year-old man is confirmed positive, but his wife and several members of the community are recorded as asymptomatic cases.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The global death toll from COVID-19 exceeds 300,000.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The UN warns of a global mental health crisis caused by isolation, fear, uncertainty and economic turmoil.

[COVID-19 pandemic] Bundesliga becomes the first major sports league to resume its season since March 11.

Cyclone Amphan makes landfall in eastern India and Bangladesh, killing over 100 people and forcing the evacuation of more than 4 million others. It causes over US$13 billion in damage, making it the costliest cyclone ever recorded in the North Indian Ocean, shattering the record previously held by Nargis.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 5 million worldwide, with 106,000 new cases recorded over the past 24 hours, the highest single-day figure so far.

Flight PK8303, a Pakistan International Airlines passenger aircraft, crashes in a residential area near Karachi, in Pakistan, killing 97 of the 99 total people on board and injuring dozens on the ground.

[COVID-19 pandemic] Brazil overtakes Russia to become the country with the second highest number of COVID-19 cases, with over 330,000 reported. President Jair Bolsonaro continues to dismiss the threat of the virus.

[COVID-19 pandemic] China reports no new cases for the first time since the pandemic began, according to the National Health Commission.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The U.S. death toll passes 100,000 - more Americans than were killed in the Vietnam War and Korean War combined, and approaching that of the First World War, where 116,000 Americans died in combat.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 6 million worldwide.

Kivu Ebola epidemic: The World Health Organization reports six new cases of Ebola, and UNICEF reports five deaths, in a renewed outbreak of the disease in Mbandaka, Équateur Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The global death toll from COVID-19 exceeds 400,000.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 7 million worldwide.

[COVID-19 pandemic] A Harvard University study suggests that COVID-19 may have been spreading in China as early as August 2019, based on hospital car park usage and web search trends.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 8 million worldwide.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 9 million worldwide.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 10 million worldwide.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The global death toll from COVID-19 exceeds 500,000.

[COVID-19 pandemic] Thousands of people rally outside the House of the National Assembly of Serbia in Belgrade in response to stricter lockdown measures proposed by President Aleksandar Vučić following an increase of cases in the city.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 12 million worldwide.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The worldwide death toll from COVID-19 exceeds 600,000.

[COVID-19 pandemic] European leaders agree to create a €750 billion (US$858 billion) recovery fund to rebuild EU economies impacted by the pandemic.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 15 million worldwide.

[COVID-19 pandemic] North Korean leader Kim Jong-un convenes an emergency meeting, declares a state of emergency, and orders the lockdown of Kaesong after a person suspected of having COVID-19 returned from South Korea. If confirmed, it would be the first case to be officially acknowledged by North Korea.

[COVID-19 pandemic] In rare talks, Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif hold a video call to discuss various regional issues, including combating COVID-19 in their respective countries.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The worldwide death toll from COVID-19 exceeds 700,000.

Air India Express Flight 1344 crashes after overrunning the runway at Calicut International Airport in Kerala, India, killing 19 of the 191 people on board.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 20 million worldwide.

[COVID-19 pandemic] Russian President Vladimir Putin announces that Russia has approved the world's first COVID-19 vaccine.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The worldwide death toll from COVID-19 exceeds 800,000.

Africa is declared free of wild polio, the second virus to be eradicated from the continent since smallpox 40 years previously.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 25 million worldwide. India continues to record the highest daily increase of cases.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 30 million worldwide.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The worldwide death toll from COVID-19 exceeds one million.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 35 million worldwide. The news coincides with the World Health Organization estimating that total worldwide cases may be around 760 million - roughly a tenth of the global population.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 40 million worldwide.

Aegean Sea earthquake: A magnitude 7.0 earthquake hits Turkey and Greece, killing 119 people and injuring over 1,000.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 45 million worldwide.

Typhoon Goni makes landfall in the Philippines, becoming the strongest landfalling tropical cyclone in history, displacing hundreds of thousands of people and killing dozens of people in the region.

2020 United States presidential election: Joe Biden is elected as the 46th President of the United States, after remaining vote counts (November 7) come in from key states delayed by an influx of mail-in ballots caused by the pandemic, defeating the incumbent President Donald Trump.

Hurricane Eta makes landfall in Nicaragua, killing over 100 people in Central America as a category 4.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 50 million worldwide.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The first successful phase III trial of a COVID-19 vaccine is announced by drug companies Pfizer and BioNTech, which is 90% effective according to interim results.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The Sputnik V vaccine is proven to be 92% effective against COVID-19 according to interim results.

[COVID-19 pandemic] Moderna's mRNA vaccine is proven to be 94.5% effective against COVID-19 based on interim results, including severe illnesses. The vaccine has been cited as being among those that are easier to distribute as no ultra-cold storage is required.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 55 million worldwide, with around a million cases recorded every two days on average.

[COVID-19 pandemic] Pfizer and BioNTech complete trials on their COVID-19 vaccine, with an overall effectiveness rate of 95% without adverse events.

[COVID-19 pandemic] AstraZeneca's AZD1222 vaccine, developed in collaboration with Oxford University, is shown to be 70% effective in protecting against COVID-19. The efficacy can be raised to 90% if an initial half dose is followed by a full dose a month later, based on interim data.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 60 million worldwide.

Koshobe massacre: Boko Haram jihadists attack a farm in Jere, Nigeria, killing at least 43 people.

[COVID-19 pandemic] Moderna files an application for Emergency Use Authorization in the United States after its vaccine achieved an efficacy of 94.1% from full trials without safety concerns. It also plans to do the same in EU soon.

[COVID-19 pandemic] Pfizer and BioNTech announced an Emergency Use Authorization application to the European Medicines Agency.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The United Kingdom approves Pfizer-BioNTech's BNT162b2 vaccine, being the first country in the world to do so.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 65 million worldwide, with the global death toll exceeding 1.5 million. Figures reflect that, in the last week, over 10,000 people worldwide have died on average every day, with one death every nine seconds. According to the World Health Organization, COVID-19 had caused more deaths in 2020 than tuberculosis in 2019, as well as four times the number of deaths than malaria.

[COVID-19 pandemic] Russia begins mass vaccination against COVID-19 with the Sputnik V candidate.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The United Kingdom becomes the first nation to begin a mass inoculation campaign using a clinically authorised, fully tested vaccine, tozinameran.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The United States and Saudi Arabia approve tozinameran for emergency use, while Argentina approves Sputnik V.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 70 million worldwide.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The United States and Canada begin mass vaccination with Tozinameran.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 75 million worldwide.

[COVID-19 pandemic] A highly infectious new strain of SARS-CoV-2 spreading in Europe and Australia provokes international border closures.

[COVID-19 pandemic] 36 cases are reported on the Base General Bernardo O'Higgins Riquelme in the Chilean Antarctic Territory, marking the first infections in Antarctica, the last continent to report infections.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 80 million worldwide.

[COVID-19 pandemic] The United Kingdom approves AstraZeneca-Oxford's vaccine, the second one available. The vaccine is easier to store as it only requires normal fridge temperatures, making distribution easier.