Digitalisation and COVID-19: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

While most of the world were ushering the year 2020 with rambunctious display of fireworks during the final hours 2019, it was also a significant day which officially signified the beginning of what would arguably become the biggest pandemic ever in the modern history of civilisation. The 2020 New Year’s eve was unlike any of its predecessors. A yetto-be-known cause of pneumonia in Wuhan, China was reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) [1]. On 5 January 2020, China reported that a cluster of pneumonia cases had been identified. In the next six days, China shared the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus to the world, which is crucial for other countries to develop essential diagnostic kits. On 13 January 2020, WHO officials confirmed a case of the novel coronavirus outside of China, namely, in Thailand. After 30 days from the first report, WHO declared the 2019-nCoV outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. On 11 February 2020, the novel coronavirus disease was named COVID-19, and on 11 March 2020, it was characterised as a pandemic. Table 1 illustrates the timeline of the development of the pandemic globally