By late 2020, the severe acute respiratory syndrome novel Coronavirus disease (referred to as COVID-19 in this discussion) pandemic is still unfolding internationally without any conclusive ideas of its timelines as well as its enduring eefct on economy, politics, world health and global society, amongst others. In our eofrts to comprehend its relevance to global health, government activity, economy, and society, it is of much importance to keep on studying its origins, evolution and impact on a national, regional and international scale, and to perhaps gain knowledge and understanding from it to manage future pandemics. Coronaviruses can cause illnesses that range from the common cold, to serious diseases such as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). They circulate in animals and can be transmietd to humans and in this case (COVID-19), it is the seventh known coronavirus to aefct humans (Al Jazeera 2020). The COVID-19 disease is caused by a highly infectious virus which causes respiratory illness (like the flu) with symptoms that includes a cough, fever, and even dificulty in breathing in severe cases. Its communicable nature is worsened as infected people who do not show symptoms could infect others. Clinical manifestations are also complex; aefcting pulmonary, cardiovascular, neurological, musculoskeletal, and other systems, imitating diefrent medical conditions, while pre-existing conditions increase the danger of mortality. The first confirmed case of someone suefring from COVID-19 can be traced back to late 2019 in the city of Wuhan, Hubei Province, China (with a population of around 11 million people). On 31 December 2019, China notifed the World Health Organization (WHO) of a string of respiratory infections in the city. The WHO is a specialised agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. Initially, the WHO reported on social media (on 4 January 2020) that there was a cluster of pneumonia cases (reporting no deaths yet) in Wuhan. As cases were soon reported in the Republic of Korea, Japan, Thailand and Singapore, the WHO Director-General convened an Emergency Commiete to consider the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in China. Oficial infections in China rose from about forty on 1 January 2020 to 550 with seventeen deaths on 22 January (Worldometers 2020 and Al Jazeera 2020). At the first meeting of the WHO Emergency Commiete regarding the outbreak, on 23 January, the WHO indicated that the outbreak did not yet constitute a public emergency of international concern and that there was “no evidence” of the virus spreading between humans outside China. However, by 4 February 2020 the WHO declared COVID-19 a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern”, following the same approach as with the advent of the H1N1 virus that caused Swine flu in 2009, Polio in 2014, Zika that aefcted the Americas in 2016, and the Ebola outbreaks in West Africa in 2014 and 2019 (WHO 2020). The main diefrence is that aeftr quick reporting and prompt action, these other health epidemics remained regionally contained, whereas COVID-19 quickly evolved into a global pandemic.