The Day Everything Changed: A Timeline of March 11, 2020
The events that unfolded on March 11 forced the nation to snap to attention as the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic and major sporting events were canceled
By Danielle Abreu ••
NBCUniversal Media, LLC
A Congressional hearing, a declaration by the World Health Organization and a canceled basketball game were a wake up call to Americans as the realities of COVID-19 began to spread across the world. This is a timeline of events that took place on March 11, 2020.
On March 11, 2020, the American public finally began to come to grips with a stark reality: the toll of the novel coronavirus would be unavoidable for months to come, perhaps longer.
For nearly two months, health and government officials had been sounding the alarm about the virus as it infected and killed thousands of people around the world, pinballing from China to Italy and beyond before striking Seattle in the first deadly outbreak in the U.S.
Then-President Donald Trump had repeatedly sought to downplay the severity of the threat, telling people: "It will go away, just stay calm."
But the events that unfolded on March 11 forced the nation to snap to attention as the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic, cities began limiting gatherings, school closings mounted and major sporting events were canceled.
Thursday marks the one-year anniversary of the COVID-19 shutdowns that rocked the U.S., a day that began in one reality and ended in a virtually new one. President Joe Biden will mark the occasion with a prime-time address to the nation.
A look back at the events that unfolded on that fateful Wednesday in March:
Dr. Anothony Fauci Testifies That 'It's Going to Get Worse'
Coronavirus Pandemic
Full coverage of the COVID-19 outbreak and how it impacts you
Fauci explains that when there's enough community spread in an outbreak — meaning the proliferation of an illness whose source of infection is unknown — "then it becomes a situation where you're not going to be able to effectively and efficiently contain it."
"I can say we will see more cases and things will get worse than they are right now," Fauci says at the Wednesday morning hearing, which features testimony from other federal health officials involved in combatting the outbreak. "How much worse we'll get will depend on our ability to do two things: to contain the influx of people who are infected coming from the outside, and the ability to contain and mitigate within our own country. Bottom line, it's going to get worse."
The hearing is abruptly paused as he and other high-level officials rush back to the White House for meetings.
WHO Declares COVID-19 a Pandemic
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus addressed the media Wednesday and asserted that he now thinks it is appropriate to characterize COVID-19 as a pandemic.
An hour later, the World Health Organization announces the new coronavirus outbreak "can be characterized as a pandemic," applying the term for the first time to COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.
"We have called every day for countries to take urgent and aggressive action. We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear," says Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO chief.
"All countries can still change the course of this pandemic. If countries detect, test, treat, isolate, trace and mobilize their people in the response," he says. "We are deeply concerned by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction."
By using the charged word "pandemic" after shying away from calling it so earlier, the U.N. health agency seeks to shock lethargic countries into pulling out all the stops. WHO defines a pandemic as the worldwide spread of a new disease for which most people do not have immunity.
San Francisco and Seattle Ban Large Gatherings
By midday, San Francisco Mayor London Breed announces via tweet that the city will prohibit all gatherings of 1,000 people or more.
The ban is effective immediately and represents the city’s latest effort to slow the spread of the new coronavirus.
Inslee's order forces Seattle-area sports teams to respond with contingency plans, with some canceling or postponing scheduled events, while others announce they'll continue to play without fans in the stands.
Sports and Entertainment Events Are Postponed or Canceled
The NCAA follows suit, announcing the men’s and women’s basketball tournament games will be off-limits to the general public while the Ivy League, the athletic conference of eight universities including Harvard University and Princeton University, says it has decided to cancel all upcoming competitions and practices through the remainder of the academic year.
Schools Cancel In-Person Learning and Move Classes Online
From UCLA to the University of Vermont, the number of colleges and universities canceling in-person classes and moving the rest of the semester online begins to mount.
The Seattle Public School system says it will close for at least two weeks for its 53,000 students. In the New York City suburb of New Rochelle, where a cluster of cases could be one of the worst outbreaks in the nation, public schools also shut down.
Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson Test Positive for the Coronavirus in Australia
Tom Hanks, who is currently in Australia, announced the news via Instagram.
In an Instagram post, the actor says he and his wife Rita Wilson are down under in Australia and began to experience fatigue, chills and slight fevers, which are all symptoms of the COVID-19 disease caused by the new virus.
"To play things right, as is needed in the world right now, we were tested for the Coronavirus, and were found to be positive," Hanks reveals to fans. "We Hanks’ will be tested, observed, and isolated for as long as public health and safety requires."
NBA Suspends the Season After Player Tests Positive for COVID-19
The NBA released a statement Wednesday saying it was suspending the season until further notice after a Utah Jazz player tested positive for coronavirus.
The test result is reported shortly before tipoff for the Utah at Oklahoma City game. Officials inform the team coaches that the game has been canceled and players on the floor warming up are told to return to their locker rooms.
Meanwhile, confused spectators at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma aren't immediately aware of the cancellation. As officials mull over how to break the news, singer Frankie J, who was slated to perform during halftime, puts on a show. As he walks off the court, fans are told the game has been postponed "due to unforeseen circumstances."
"The NBA is suspending game play following the conclusion of tonight’s schedule of games until further notice," the league said in a statement sent shortly after 9:30 p.m. ET. "The NBA will use this hiatus to determine next steps for moving forward in regard to the coronavirus pandemic."
Trump Bans Foreign Travelers From Europe for 30 Days
President Donald Trump said Wednesday the U.S. would suspend travel from Europe, with the exception of the United Kingdom, for 30 days to curb the spread of coronavirus. After Trump's address, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said the restrictions only apply to foreign nationals and not U.S. citizens, green card holders or the family of U.S. citizens. He also called on Congress to provide Americans payroll tax relief.
After downplaying the threat of the virus for days, President Trump announces from the Oval Office that he is sharply restricting European passenger travel to the U.S. and moving to ease the pandemic's economic costs.
In his prime-time address, Trump declares that he is cutting off travel from 26 European nations, except the United Kingdom, to the U.S. beginning at midnight on March 13. The month-long restrictions won't apply U.S. citizens, green card holders or the family of U.S. citizens. Trump says the U.S. would monitor the situation to determine if travel could be reopened earlier.
"We are all in this together," Trump says.
After a Pandemic Year of Isolation, Hope Is on the Horizon
Richard Drew/AP
Trader Timothy Nick, left, and specialist Michael Pistillo work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, March 3, 2020. Worries over the novel coronavirus in Asia caused markets to race downward, sparking a pandemic recession.
Eric Risberg/AP
The Grand Princess cruise ship passes beneath the Golden Gate Bridge in this view from Sausalito, California, March 9, 2020. The cruise ship, carrying over a dozen people infected with the coronavirus, passed under the bridge as federal and state officials in California prepared to receive thousands of people on the ship that had been idling off the coast of San Francisco.
Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announces COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, a pandemic at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, March 11, 2020.
Andrew Matthews/PA via AP
A stall displays a sign after running out of facemasks and antibacterial hand sanitizer due to the coronavirus outbreak during day three of the Cheltenham Festival, Cheltenham, England, March 12, 2020. Entire countries faced shortages in personal protective gear, hand sanitizers and bleach as the scope of COVID-19 started to widen.
Nick Wass/AP
The Capital One Arena, home of the Washington Capitals NHL hockey club, sits empty Thursday, March 12, 2020, in Washington. The NHL followed the NBA’s lead and suspended its season amid the coronavirus outbreak, the league announced.
Ahn Young-joon/AP
Army soldiers wearing protective suits spray disinfectant as a precaution against the novel coronavirus in Seoul, South Korea, March 4, 2020. The coronavirus epidemic shifted increasingly westward toward the Middle East, Europe and the United States in early March, with governments taking emergency steps to ease shortages of masks and other supplies for front-line doctors and nurses.
Gerald Herbert/AP
School Resource Officer Donald Lee locks the gates of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School for Science and Technology, after all the students left, in New Orleans, March 13, 2020. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards on Friday closed K-12 public schools across the state for roughly a month and banned gatherings of more than 250 people in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus. He said he also planned to postpone the presidential primary until June.
Alessandra Tarantino/AP
People wave and clap their hands at the Garbatella neighborhood, in Rome, March 14, 2020. The nationwide lockdown to slow coronavirus was still early days for much of Italy, but Italians were already showing signs of solidarity with flash mob calls circulating on social media for people to ”gather” on their balconies at certain hours, either to play music or to give each other a round of applause.
John Minchillo/AP
Cassandra Paris takes a farewell shot at 169 bar with patrons, March 16, 2020, in New York. New York leaders took a series of unprecedented steps to slow the spread of the coronavirus in early March, including canceling schools and extinguishing most nightlife in New York City.
Luca Bruno/AP
Robbiano Church’s parson, Don Giuseppe Corbari, seen next to selfies sent by his parishioners and pasted on the pews of the Robbiano Church, in Giussano, Italy, March 15, 2020. Easter was the first major holiday for many who had found themselves needing to build a new life around isolation and social distancing.
Ted S. Warren/AP
Neal Browning receives a shot in the first-stage safety study clinical trial of a potential vaccine for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, March 16, 2020, at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle.
Alessandra Tarantino/AP
A patient in a biocontainment unit is carried on a stretcher from an ambulance arrived at the Columbus Covid 2 Hospital in Rome, March 17, 2020.
Carlos Gil/AP
The Emergency Army Unit seen at the train station in Granada, Spain, March 17, 2020. Police checked passports and IDs at the Pyrenees’ border with France and along the 1,200 kilometer shared border with Portugal, as Spain re-established controls for incoming and outgoing travelers to stem the new COVID-19 outbreak.
Luca Bruno/AP
Several pages of obituaries from the Eco di Bergamo is spread out in March 18, 2020, Mediglia, Italy. Bergamo is at the heart of the hardest-hit province in Italy’s hardest-hit region of Lombardy.
John Minchillo/AP
Peck’s Food owner Theodore Peck touches hands with a customer through glass while closing his storefront coffee shop and bakery due to the coronavirus outbreak, March 18, 2020, in Brooklyn, New York. Peck, like many other business owners, was forced to close after the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic and states around the country went into shut down as a preventative measure.
Lynne Sladky/AP
Empty chairs sit on the beach, March 19, 2020, in Miami Beach, Florida. Florida’s largest county inched closer to economic shutdown as Miami-Dade County’s mayor ordered all beaches, parks and “non-essential” commercial and retail businesses closed because of the coronavirus outbreak. Mayor Carlos Gimenez’s order allowed several businesses to remain open, including health care providers, grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants and banks.
Ariana Cubillos/AP
An elderly woman is sprayed with a disinfectant bleach solution by a soldier as a preventive measure against the spread of the new coronavirus, at the entrance of a food market in Caracas, Venezuela, March 20, 2020.
Tatan Syuflana/AP
Firemen spray disinfectant in an effort to curb the spread of coronavirus outbreak at the main business district, in Jakarta, Indonesia, March 22, 2020.
Rafiq Maqbool/AP
People clap from balconies in a show of appreciation to health care workers at a Chawl in Mumbai, India, March 22, 2020. India is observed a 14-hour “people’s curfew” called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in order to stem the rising coronavirus caseload in the country of 1.3 billion.
Darko Vojinovic/AP
Serbian soldiers set up beds for treatment of possible COVID-19 infected patients inside of the Belgrade Fair, Serbia, March 24, 2020.
Antonio Calanni/AP
Coffins are lined up on the floor in the San Giuseppe church in Seriate, one of the areas worst hit by coronavirus, near Bergamo, Italy, March 26, 2020.
Arshad Butt/AP
Hospital staff pray before joining their shift, outside a hospital setup for coronavirus infected patients in Quetta, Pakistan, March 26, 2020.
Patrick Semansky/AP
President Donald Trump salutes as the U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort pulls away from the pier at Naval Station Norfolk in Norfolk, Virginia, March 28, 2020. The ship departed for New York to assist hospitals responding to the coronavirus outbreak. Defense Secretary Mark Esper is at right.
Sylvain Cherkaoui/AP
A municipal worker sprays disinfectant in a mosque to help curb the spread of the new coronavirus in Dakar, Senegal on Wednesday, April 1, 2020. Over a million people were confirmed positive for COVID-19 within a month of lockdowns in the United States and elsewhere.
Ng Han Guan/AP
Residents climb onto chairs to buy groceries from vendors behind barriers used to seal off a neighborhood in Wuhan, April 3, 2020. Sidewalk vendors wearing face masks and gloves sold pork, tomatoes, carrots and other vegetables to shoppers in the city where the coronavirus pandemic began as workers prepared for a national memorial for health workers and others who died in the outbreak.
Elizabeth Dalziel/AP
Amelie and her sister, Camille, look out from their front window as the COVID-19 coronavirus lockdown enters its third week, along with their parents, Victoria and Damian Kerr, in Berkhamsted, England, April 4, 2020. Victoria and Damian were both working full-time from home, but were enjoying the chance the lockdown gave them to spend more time together as a family despite its challenges.
Ng Han Guan/AP
A farewell ceremony is held for the last group of medical workers who came from outside Wuhan to help the city during the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China, April 15, 2020. Wuhan, the epicenter of China’s coronavirus outbreak, emerged from a two-months-long lockdown, with authorities working hard to restore businesses and factories.
Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP
Novice Buddhist monks with protective masks and face shields, seated to maintain social distancing, participate in a religious class at Molilokayaram Educational Institute in Bangkok, Thailand, April 15, 2020. All schools in Thailand were closed earlier than the scheduled school break due to the COVID-19 outbreak, but about 200 novice monks remained in the monastic school due to travel restrictions and lockdowns implemented in provinces in Thailand.
Victor R. Caivano/AP
Cots fill Tecnopolis Park in Buenos Aires, Argentina, April 17, 2020, in preparation for local COVID-19 cases.
Rodrigo Abd/AP
Day laborers and informal workers who eke out a living in Peru’s capital evade a police blockade looking for a different route home, on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, April 18, 2020. Because the strict quarantine rules amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic did not allow for inter-province travel, the workers had been living on the side of the road for days, blocked by police from returning to their homes located outside the capital.
Markus Schreiber/AP
Police officers detain a protester covered with bandages during an illegal demonstration against restrictions and measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus in Berlin, Germany, April 25, 2020. The poster read, “Intimidated, disenfranchised, remote controlled from thinker to a data donor.”
Cecilia Fabiano/LaPresse via AP
A woman sips coffee under her face shield at a cafe with outdoor tables in Rome, May 18, 2020. Italy slowly lifted restrictions after a two-month COVID-19 coronavirus lockdown.
Nina Lin/NBC
Times Square sits emptied of its usual crowds on May 23, 2020, in New York. Bustling metropolises in countries around the world continued to sit empty weeks after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic as government leaders shut down the tourism and local hospitality in an effort to mitigate spread.
John Minchillo/AP
Guests watch the movie “Trolls World Tour” in the rain at the Four Brothers Drive In Theatre amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, May 15, 2020, in Amenia, New York. The ongoing pandemic meant that businesses in leisure and hospitality had to reinvent themselves in order to allow for safety measures. Over 100,000 people would have died in the United States from COVID-related complications or from COVID by June.
Peter Dejong/AP
Customers seated in small glasshouses enjoy lunch at the Mediamatic restaurant in Amsterdam, Netherlands, June 1, 2020. The government took a major step to relax the coronavirus lockdown, with bars, restaurants, cinemas and museums reopening under strict conditions, abiding by government guidelines and respecting social distancing to help curb the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
Ali Aksoyer/DHA via AP
Worshippers observing social distancing guidelines to protect against coronavirus attend Friday prayers, outside the Camlica Mosque, the largest mosque in Asia Minor, in Istanbul, Friday, May 29, 2020. The mosque, with a capacity for 60,000 worshippers under normal circumstances, held its first communal Friday prayers in 74 days after the government re-opened some mosques as part of its plans to relax measures in place to fight the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.
Mark Humphrey/AP
Rep. Charlie Baum, R-Murfreesboro, front left, and other House members sit behind glass partitions due to the coronavirus pandemic during a House session Tuesday, June 9, 2020, in Nashville, Tennessee.
Rodrigo Abd/AP
A woman sits among the more than 4,000 portraits of people who died due to COVID-19 complications, at the Cathedral, in Lima, Peru, June 13, 2020.
Emilio Morenatti/AP
Agustina Cañamero, 81, and Pascual Pérez, 84, hug and kiss through a plastic film screen to avoid contracting the new coronavirus at a nursing home in Barcelona, Spain, Monday, June 22, 2020. The Ballesol Fabra i Puig elderly care center installed the screens to resume relatives’ visits to residents 102 days after a strict, nationwide lockdown separated them. As she and her husband broke out into tears while kissing through layers of protective masks and the transparent plastic film, Cañamero said that the couple had never spent such a long time with no physical contact in 59 years of marriage. Nursing homes in Spain were particularly hit by the novel virus, which has claimed at least 28,300 lives nationwide.
Wilfredo Lee/AP
Valedictorian Sierra Morgado listens during a graduation ceremony for the senior class of Chambers High School at Homestead-Miami Speedway, June 23, 2020, in Homestead, Florida. The coronavirus upended the lives of high school seniors and college students, all whom had to navigate their education amid a pandemic.
Eric Gay/AP
Tubers prepare to float the Comal River despite a recent spike in COVID-19 cases, June 25, 2020, in New Braunfels, Texas. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday that the state is facing a “massive outbreak” in the coronavirus pandemic and that some new local restrictions may be needed to protect hospital space for new patients.
Esteban Felix/AP
Bergut Funeral Services employees deliver coffins to a funeral store in Santiago, Chile, June 19, 2020. Coffin production increased 120%, according to owner Nicolas Bergerie. A basic coffin, penned the COVID model, was designed to cope with the increase of deaths during the new coronavirus pandemic.
Niranjan Shrestha/AP
A volunteer packs food for doctors and COVID-19 patients in Kathmandu, Nepal, Sept. 1, 2020. At one of the largest hospitals in Nepal, a pharmacist and taxi driver teamed up to feed COVID-19 patients, doctors, nurses and health workers. Due to lockdowns, the cafeteria and nearby cafes closed, leaving more than 200 staffers, patients and their families without food. The two friends took their own money and donations and put it to use buying groceries, renting a kitchen and paying helpers to provide the meals.
Ramon Espinosa/AP
Students raise their hands during class in Havana, Cuba, Monday, Nov. 2, 2020. Tens of thousands of school children returned to class that day in Havana for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic prompted authorities to shut the island down in April.
Anthony Peltier/AP
President Donald Trump drives past supporters gathered outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, Oct. 4, 2020. Trump was admitted to the hospital after contracting COVID-19.
Mark Lennihan/AP
Nurses walk out of Montefiore New Rochelle Hospital to go on strike over safe staffing issues during the coronavirus pandemic, Dec. 1, 2020, in New Rochelle, New York.
Eraldo Peres/AP
Medical workers celebrate as the last three patients are released from a field hospital at the National Stadium Mane Garrincha, after recuperating from COVID-19, in Brasilia, Brazil, Oct. 15, 2020.
Jerome Delay/AP
A lab technician works on blood samples taken from people taking part in a Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine test at the Ndlovu clinic’s lab in Groblersdal, South Africa, Feb. 11, 2021. African countries without the coronavirus variant dominant in South Africa should go ahead and use the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday, while the World Health Organization suggested the vaccine even for countries with the variant circulating widely.
Bill Feig/The Advocate via AP
As Miranda Rader, Ochsner BR Pharmacy Supervisor, background, watches, Heather Maturin, Ochsner BR Phamacy Director, removes the dry ice while unpacking the first doses of COVID-19 vaccine at Ochsner Hospital on O’Neal Lane, Dec. 15, 2020, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The approval and rollout of both the Modern and Pfizer vaccine happened a full year after the first cases of COVID-19 was discovered.
Mark Lennihan/AP
Sandra Lindsay, left, a nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, becomes one of the first in the United States to be inoculated with a COVID-19 vaccine by Dr. Michelle Chester, Dec. 14, 2020, in Queens, New York.
David Goldman/AP
A medical team helps turn over a COVID-19 patient on a respirator inside the intensive care unit at Kent Hospital, Monday, Dec. 28, 2020, in Warwick, Rhode Island. Kent Hospital opened a field hospital on Nov. 30, just before Rhode Island’s infection rate became the highest in the world. Kent Hospital was using all its beds for its sickest COVID-19 patients, and needed somewhere for the overflow.
Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP
Motorists wait in lines to take a coronavirus test in a parking lot at Dodger Stadium, Monday, Jan. 4, 2021, in Los Angeles.
Twelve months later, more than 531,000 Americans have died of COVID-19 and 29million have been diagnosed with the virus. The resulting shutdowns have roiled the U.S. economy, with roughly four in 10 Americans saying they’re still feeling the financial impact of the loss of a job or income within their household as the economic recovery remains uneven one year into the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll.
While no one foresaw the long road ahead, or the many ways in which they would suffer — the deaths and ruined economies, the disrupted lives and near-universal loneliness and isolation — many are now looking toward the light at the end of the tunnel thanks to vaccines developed at rapid speed. And in a first step toward resuming some normal activities, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced this week that fully vaccinated Americans can gather with other vaccinated people indoors without wearing a mask or social distancing.
