Three years ago, the Associated Press reported on the World Health Organization's declaration of "the outbreak sparked by a new virus in China that has spread to more than a dozen countries as a global emergency Thursday after the number of cases spiked more than tenfold in a week."
"The U.N. health agency defines an international emergency as an 'extraordinary event' that constitutes a risk to other countries and requires a coordinated international response," the report continued.
The same day, U.S. health officials reported the first known case in which the new coronavirus was spread from one person to another in the United States. President Donald Trump described the handful of U.S. cases of the virus as a “very little problem” and said people infected were “recuperating successfully.” The State Department advised U.S. citizens against traveling to China, and Russia ordered the closure of its 2,600-mile-long land border with China in an effort to limit the spread of the virus.
In his speech declaring a global public health emergency, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said "Our greatest concern is the potential for this virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems which are ill-prepared to deal with it.”
"The only way we will defeat this outbreak," said Dr. Tedros, "is for all countries to work together in a spirit of solidarity and cooperation. We are all in this together, and we can only stop it together."
As of Jan. 27, 2023, more than 6.8 million people have died of Covid-19, according to WHO data.
Cheddar News checks in with a coast-to-coast forecast of the weather for Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2023 and the latest on Hurricane Idalia.
Police charged a graduate student at the University of North Carolina with first-degree murder for allegedly shooting and killing a faculty member.
Monday marks 60 years since Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech during the March on Washington.
Cheddar News checks in with a coast-to-coast forecast of the weather for Monday, Aug. 28, 2023.
Yale says it will modify its policies regarding medical leaves of absence, including streamlining the reinstatement process for students who return to campus when they are ready.
Hawaiian Electric Co. had not insulated miles of wires, which can spark on contact, or replaced old, leaning wooden utility poles not built for strong winds.
Camp Pendleton, CA - December 05: A MV-22 Osprey aircraft is used during the annual Steel Knight training exercise on Monday, December 5, 2022 at Camp Pendleton. (Photo by Mindy Schauer/MediaNewsGroup/Orange County Register via Getty Images)
The original march in 1963 drew as many as 250,000 people and helped pave the way for the passage of federal civil rights and voting rights legislation in the next few years.
The 21-year-old man used a handgun and an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle — both if which were purchased legally earlier this year — to kill three Black people.
Idalia could approach Florida on Wednesday with winds of up to 100 mph (160 kph), according to the latest forecasts from the Hurricane Center. That would make it a Category 2 hurricane.
