March 2020 was a pivotal month for the worldwide geographic and numeric expansion of the first wave of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). We examined the major storylines that depicted this explosive spread of COVID-19 around the globe.

A detailed review of World Health Organization (WHO) situation reports, surveillance summaries, and online resources allowed us to quantify the increases in cases and deaths by region and by country throughout the month of March 2020.

During March, COVID-19 was officially declared by the WHO to be a pandemic. COVID-19 emerged from a focalized outbreak in the Western Pacific Region and rapidly proliferated across all continents worldwide. Globally, cumulative numbers of confirmed cases increased by a factor of nine throughout the month. During the entire month, cases rose exponentially throughout Europe. Starting in mid-March, confirmed cases accelerated coast-to-coast throughout the United States and, on March 26, the United States surpassed all other nations to rank first in numbers of cases. COVID-19 mortality lagged several weeks behind but by month’s end, death tolls were also rising exponentially.

March 2020 was a consequential month when the COVID-19 pandemic wrapped completely around the planet, with outbreaks erupting in most nations worldwide.