Five years pass since COVID-19 emergency declared

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Today marks five years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US.

January 31, 2020 is when the US government officially declared a public health emergency for the coronavirus.

It’s still unclear how the illness started in Wuhan, China in 2019.

The CDC said more than a million people died in connection to the virus.

Researchers say the pandemic was also hard on mental health, especially for children and teens.