National COVID-19 Day Date in the current year: March 11, 2024

In November of 2019, the world changed forever, but we didn’t know it yet. In the Chinese city of Wuhan, an outbreak of mysterious pneumonia was registered. By the end of January 2020, the disease spread throughout mainland China, and the World Health Organization declared it a public health emergency of international concern.

On February 11, 2020, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was adopted as the official name of the novel virus, and the disease caused by it was named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). A month later, the WHO declared the outbreak of COVID-19 a global pandemic, and countries across the world began to implement lockdowns, quarantines, social distancing, and other preventive measures to slow the spread of the virus and reduce the load on healthcare systems.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused millions of deaths, and lockdowns have resulted in the greatest global economic recession since the Great Depression, supply shortages, and intense political tensions. Although the situation has greatly improved thanks to vaccination and mutations that have made the virus less deadly, the COVID-19 pandemic had already caused enough suffering by the time vaccination became available.

National COVID-19 Day in the United States is a joint project of the Humanitarian Disaster Institute, VOMO (a volunteer management software platform), and World Vision (a global Christian humanitarian organization). They launched it in 2021 to help Americans navigate their collective grief, mourn those who died during the pandemic, and encourage people to help each other in times of crisis. National COVID-19 Day is observed on March 11 because on this day in 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of COVID-19 a global pandemic.

National Day of Observance for COVID-19 is also observed in Canada. It was declared by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2021 to commemorate the people who died during the pandemic and the significant impact of COVID-19 on all Canadians, recognize health care workers who risked their lives to save others, and raise awareness of the effects of long COVID-19.

There are many ways to observe National COVID-19 Day. You can attend a live memorial event or join a virtual one, organize a remembrance ceremony in your community, reach out to those who have lost their loved ones to COVID-19 to offer support, get help if you’re struggling with grief, share your memories about the person or people you’ve lost, thank the front line workers you know for everything they’ve done, get your booster shot if it’s time, donate to or volunteer for an organization that provides care and resources to those affected by COVID-19, and post on social media with the hashtag #NationalCOVID19Day.

Italians observe National Day in Remembrance of COVID-19 Victims a week later, on March 18. Italy was one of the countries that were most heavily impacted by the initial outbreak; during the peak of the pandemic, its number of active cases was one of the highest in the world.