The world has now recorded its 10 millionth person infected with the novel coronavirus, 180 days after the first cases were reported in Wuhan, China.
As the virus spread throughout the world this year, it reached every continent apart from Antarctica, as the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared it a pandemic.
Infections have now been reported in more than 210 countries and territories.
And coronavirus has now been officially ruled responsible for close to half a million deaths worldwide.
The road to 10 million
From a cluster of unusual pneumonia cases in the Chinese city of Wuhan reported to the World Health Organisation on December 31, the virus spread fast.
By January the virus began to spread throughout the country, eventually reaching all of China’s 31 provinces.
The country peaked with almost 6,500 new infections reported in a day in mid-February.
The reproduction rate of the virus was severely curtailed by harsh lockdowns across the sprawling metropolis of Wuhan, alongside social distancing rules and increased testing.
On Sunday, China’s active confirmed cases have dropped below 1,000.
And while the virus has officially caused the deaths of 4,641 people in the country, since late February the vast majority of global COVID-19 cases have been elsewhere.