March 24, 2020 / ByMorgan Winsor and Emily Shapiro
Over 1.5 billion people across the globe — more than one-fifth of the world’s population — have been ordered or urged to stay home amid a deadly pandemic of the novel coronavirus, which the World Health Organization has warned “is accelerating.”
The new respiratory virus, known officially as COVID-19, has killed more than 17,200 people worldwide since emerging in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December. 
There are more than 396,000 diagnosed cases of COVID-19 across the globe, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
With more than 46,500 diagnosed cases, the U.S. has the third-highest national total behind Italy and China.
The virus has spread to every state as well as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, claiming the lives of at least 592 people in the U.S.