Global coronavirus deaths surpass 1 million — Here's a timeline of how we got here. The coronavirus pandemic has upended life around the world. What started as a mysterious pneumonia-like illness in Wuhan, China, has spread to nearly every country, culminating in at least one million deaths globally, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Here's a timeline of the pandemic's insidious path around the world. (c) 2020 CNBC LLC.