“From Monday and until further notice, nurseries, schools, high schools and universities will be closed.” It is by these words that Emmanuel Macron announced, on March 12, 2020, the implementation of a confinement to deal with the epidemic of Covid-19. An unprecedented measure that will officially start five days later. While on March 17, 2020, nearly 168,000 cases were confirmed, having caused more than 6,500 deaths, the government took new measures to slow down the evolution of the virus and reduce pressure on hospitals.
Five years later, L’Express returns to the key dates of the pandemic which has officially killed more than 7 million people around the world (at least double according to WHO estimates) and whose origin is still unknown.
From the first victim of a “mysterious epidemic of pneumonia” discovered in Wuhan, China, on November 17, 2019, to the lifting of restrictions in France in February 2022, this retrospective recalls the way in which the virus spread to the rest of the world in a few weeks, and how the government has organized to face it.