Chilling animation shows how coronavirus spread like wildfire across world in 6 months

A chilling new video has revealed how coronavirus spread around the world following the outbreak in China earlier this year.

The data visualisation was put together by designers Global Stats who used the World Health Organisation 's (WHO) Situation Reports to compile the animation.

The eerie timelapse shows the shifting response to the pandemic since the first cases were reported in Wuhan, China late last year.

The video illustrates how the virus took hold in Asia before spreading to Europe and its new epicentre in the Americas.

The death rate is also charted in the video and shows how it climbed dramatically as it reached Europe before a modest decline.

The virus started out as a pneumonia-like infection with just a few reported clusters in China, Vietnam and South Korea.

However, by early March the virus had forced Italy into a shutdown before reaching the United Kingdom, where over 45,000 people are now confirmed to have died with coronavirus.

Covid-19 was eventually declared a pandemic on March 11 by the World Health Organisation as the global economy went into lockdown to help control the spread