On 3/11/20, WHO declared a pandemic. These quotes and photos recall that historic time

Staff of the Wuhan Hygiene Emergency Response Team leave the shuttered Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan on Jan. 11, 2020. There is strong evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic originated in animals at this market. China stated that a 61-year-old man who purchased goods there was the first known death from the respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus. (Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images)

Three years ago, on March 11, 2020, COVID-19 was officially designated a pandemic by the World Health Organization. The novel coronavirus had fanned out across the globe, and the world had lost its ability to contain it. Countries reacted to the emerging disease with a mix of denial, incredulity and fear. Here's what global health officials and political leaders were saying in the weeks leading up to that WHO declaration.

Jan. 5, 2020: WHO issued an announcement that not quite a week prior, their China Country Office had learned of "cases of pneumonia of unknown etiology (unknown cause) detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China. As of 3 January 2020, a total of 44 patients with pneumonia of unknown etiology have been reported to WHO by the national authorities in China."