Don't show me this message again✕ At the start of 2020, Covid-19 was still an unknown illness to most of the world but now there have been more than 110 million confirmed cases of coronavirus worldwide and a global death toll that exceeds two million. Much is still not known about the long-term impacts of the virus - in February 2020, the government believed it was similar to known respiratory illnesses, like the flu, which is why they adopted a well-tested flu pandemic model. Now it is clear that coronavirus operates differently. Another aspect of the virus which is becoming more well-documented is its duration.