Short answers, pulled from the story.
The first known case of the virus that would become the COVID-19 pandemic was likely present in the human population between October and November 2019. This early transmission occurred in the shadows of the bustling Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China.
Chinese pulmonologist Zhang Jixian observed a cluster of pneumonia patients on the 26th of December 2019 and reported her findings to the Wuhan Jianghan CDC the following day. Ophthalmologist Li Wenliang was one of eight doctors detained by police on the 3rd of January 2020 for alerting authorities to the unusual illness.
By the first week of April 2020, more than 3.9 billion people representing over half the global population were under some form of lockdown. This measure was implemented as governments attempted to contain the rapidly spreading virus and triggered the largest global recession since the Great Depression.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine became the most widely used globally during the COVID-19 pandemic. By August 2024, more than 5.6 billion people had received at least one dose, totaling 13.7 billion doses administered worldwide.
On the 5th of May 2023, the World Health Organization declared that the public health emergency caused by COVID-19 had ended. This decision followed a period of declining deaths and hospitalizations and the widespread availability of vaccines and general immunity.