From a mysterious pneumonia in Wuhan to a wrenched Ohio election: a COVID-19 timeline

In December 2019, the World Health Organization became aware of a strange pneumonia of unknown cause affecting 44 people in Wuhan city, in China.

By Monday, March 16, the illness, now known as COVID-19, wrenched Ohio’s elections and prompted the closure of its public schools, sporting events, bars, restaurants and more.

On Tuesday, March 17, Gov. Mike DeWine defended his decision to close Ohio’s polls, and announced an order to prohibit certain elective medical procedures. Johns Hopkins University data states nearly 200,000 people have been infected and 7,893 have died.

This timeline was created to give a sense of how the virus snowballed into a lethal pandemic of epic proportions and ravaged the contours of day-to-day life in Ohio.