On this day in 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) presided a conference to declare that coronavirus, that originated in China had spread 13 fold in countries worldwide and was now a ‘pandemic’. Asserting that he was ‘deeply concerned’, the WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared a global health emergency. He said, countries must take “urgent and aggressive action” now  to change the course of the outbreak. “The situation will worsen,” he warned, adding that the disease will spread across all countries of the world. “We expect to see the number of cases, the number of deaths, and the number of affected countries climb even higher,” he told a press conference. READ | Survivor ill with COVID-19 days after Beirut blastFew hours later, Italy shut down all establishments, businesses and public premises, allowing only pharmacies to operate. The country had then recorded 12,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, with nearly 1,000 in ICU on ventilator. At least 114 countries registered nearly 118,000 cases of COVID-19 respiratory illness caused by SARS-CoV2. Worldwide, 4,300 fatalities were recorded as of March 11, 2020. Researchers predicted that the respiratory illness would cause mild symptoms among 80 percent, severe symptoms in over 15 percent and 5 percent will need critical ICU intervention.