WHO provides this timeline of the Organization’s COVID-19 response activities for general information.

WHO will update the timeline on a regular basis and in light of evolving events and new information.
Unless noted otherwise, country-specific information and data are as reported to WHO by its Member
States.

This timeline supersedes the WHO Timeline statement published in April 2020. It is not intended to be
exhaustive and does not contain details of every event or WHO activity.

As of 26 January 2021, the following milestones and events focused on COVID-19 have taken place:

WHO Headquarters has held 134 media briefings. The Director-General's opening remarks, transcripts,
videos and audio recordings for these media briefings are available online.

There have been 41 Member State Briefings and information sessions.

WHO convenes international expert networks, covering topics such as clinical management, laboratory
and virology, infection prevention and control, mathematical modelling, seroepidemiology, and research
and development for diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines, which have held frequent teleconferences,
starting in early January 2020. These networks include thousands of scientists, medical and public health
professionals from around the world.

The OpenWHO platform has had more than 4.8 million total course enrolments, with 25 different
COVID-19 courses available to support the COVID-19 response, spanning across 44 languages for COVID-
19.

The Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Infectious Hazards (STAG-IH) has met 57 times. STAG-IH
provides independent advice and analysis to the WHO Health Emergencies Programme on the infectious
hazards that may pose a threat to global health security.

As of 26 January 2021, WHO’s landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines lists 63 candidate vaccines in
clinical development and 173 in preclinical development.
In addition to the selected guidance included below, all of WHO’s technical guidance on COVID-19 can
be found online here.

All events listed below are in the Geneva, Switzerland time zone (CET/CEST). Note that the dates listed
for documents are based on when they were finalized and timestamped.

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31 Dec 2019

WHO’s Country Office in the People’s Republic of China picked up a media statement by the Wuhan
Municipal Health Commission from their website on cases of ‘viral pneumonia’ in Wuhan, People’s
Republic of China.

The Country Office notified the International Health Regulations (IHR) focal point in the WHO Western
Pacific Regional Office about the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission media statement of the cases
and provided a translation of it.

WHO’s Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources (EIOS) platform also picked up a media report on
ProMED (a programme of the International Society for Infectious Diseases) about the same cluster of
cases of “pneumonia of unknown cause”, in Wuhan.

Several health authorities from around the world contacted WHO seeking additional information.

1 January 2020