As the world continues to grapple with the disruptive impact of COVID-19, its origins remain mysterious.
Though differing accounts have been offered, what we know for certain is that the coronavirus was first detected during the final days of 2019 in Wuhan, a Chinese city of about 11 million people in Hubei province – perhaps previously best known in the West as home to the Three Gorges Dam.
Since then, confirmed cases have been reported in more than 200 countries and territories. Using data from the World Health Organization and other sources, the World Economic Forum has created a visualization tracking its spread.
The WHO began issuing situation reports about a pneumonia of “unknown cause” on 21 January, when 278 of its 282 confirmed cases had been reported in China. The visualization begins by tracing the early spread of what eventually became known as COVID-19 within that country.

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The impact of COVID-19 has now spread across the globe, decimating stock markets, closing schools, triggering job losses and border controls, and spurring many people to stockpile food. Below we see the spread of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide.
More than 150,000 people have reportedly died as a result of COVID-19 to date. As of 21 January, there were six reported deaths, all of them in Wuhan. However, confirmed cases had already spread to other countries throughout the world
Above we see the spread of reported COVID-19 cases throughout globe over time.