User:Toran107/Timeline of the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic in November 2019 – mid January 2020

This user subpage caps the main article to be truncated at January 16, several days before the WHO and Chinese declared this an epidemic and human to human transmission-able, when activity and response increase dramatically following the 16-20th January time frame.

This article documents the chronology and epidemiology of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus responsible for the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic originating in Wuhan, China. It may not include all contemporary major responses and measures. Furthermore, some developments may become known or fully understood only in retrospect. (This omnibus timeline is divided into monthly sections and articles: This chronological section covers November 2019 to mid January 2020, the next February 2020, and so on.)

Pandemic chronology






17 November 2019
A confirmed case of the novel coronavirus emerged on 17 November 2019, according to 13 March 2020 reports of official Chinese government sources, but was not recognized at that time. There may have been earlier patients; the search for them continues.

1-21 December
The first known patient started experiencing symptoms on 1 December 2019. He had not been to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market of Wuhan. No epidemiological link could be found between this case and later cases.

Between 8 and 18 December 2019, seven cases later diagnosed with novel coronavirus were documented; two of them were linked with the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market; five were not.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported in a broadcast airing on 12 January 2020 that a "new viral outbreak was first detected in the city of Wuhan, China, on 12 December 2019."

Chinese epidemiologists with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC) published an article on 20 January 2020 stating that the first cluster of patients with "pneumonia of an unknown cause" had been identified on 21 December 2019.

24-28 December
First publicly reported collection of virus sample from patient for genetic sequencing.

Report of medical staffs in two hospitals in Wuhan suspected to be infected and were being isolated around 25 December.

On 2019-12-26, a laboratory identified the coronavirus from the sample collected on 24 December as to be most closely related to a bat SARS-like coronavirus.

On 2019-12-27, almost complete genetic sequencing of the previous sample have been finished and shared to Institute of Pathogen Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College (CAMS&PUMC).

29 December
According to a CCDC publication on 31 January 2020, the facts leading up to the identification of the 2019-nCoV were as follows, "On 29 December 2019, a hospital in Wuhan admitted four individuals with pneumonia and recognized that all four had worked in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, which sells live poultry, aquatic products, and several kinds of wild animals to the public. The hospital reported this occurrence to the CCDC, which led Wuhan CCDC staff to initiate a field investigation with a retrospective search for pneumonia patients potentially linked to the market. The investigators found additional patients linked to the market, and on 30 December, health authorities from Hubei Province reported this cluster to CCDC. The following day, CCDC sent experts to Wuhan to support the investigation and control effort. Samples from these patients were obtained for laboratory analyses."

30 December
On 2019-12-30, genetic sequencing report of the pathogen of a patient indicated inaccurately the discovery of Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS coronavirus) in the test result. After receiving the test result, multiple doctors in Wuhan shared the information via internet, including Dr. Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital, who posted a warning to alumni from his medical school class via a WeChat online forum that a cluster of seven patients treating within the ophthalmology department had been unsuccessfully treated for symptoms of viral pneumonia and diagnosed with SARS. Because these patients did not respond to traditional treatments, they were quarantined in an ER department of the Wuhan Central Hospital. In the WeChat post, Li falsely posted that "X Hospital has many confirmed cases of SARS" and "There had been 7 confirmed cases of SARS". Dr. Li posted a snippet of an RNA analysis finding "SARS coronavirus" and extensive bacteria colonies in a patient's airways. Dr. Li contracted this coronavirus from a patient he treated, was hospitalized on 12 January 2020 and died on 7 February 2020.

News of an outbreak of "pneumonia of unknown origin" started circulating on social media on the evening of 30 December 2019. The social media reports stated that 27 patients in Wuhan—most of them stall holders at the Huanan Seafood Market—had been treated for the mystery illness.

On the evening of 30 December 2019, an "urgent notice on the treatment of pneumonia of unknown cause" was issued by the Wuhan Municipal Health Committee on its Weibo social media account. It was reported that since the beginning of December, there had been "a successive series of patients with unexplained pneumonia"—27 suspected cases in total, seven of which were in critical condition and 18 were stable, two of which were on the verge of being discharged soon. The Wuhan Municipal Health Committee reported to the WHO that 27 people had been diagnosed with pneumonia of unknown cause. Most were stallholders from the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, seven of whom were in critical condition. The Wuhan Municipal Health Commission also made a public announcement regarding the situation.

Early investigations into the cause of the pneumonia ruled out seasonal flu, SARS, MERS and bird flu.

Hong Kong Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee announced after an urgent night-time meeting with officials and experts, "[any suspected cases] including the presentation of fever and acute respiratory illness or pneumonia, and travel history to Wuhan within 14 days before onset of symptoms, we will put the patients in isolation."

31 December
On 31 December 2019, China contacts the WHO and informs them of "cases of pneumonia of unknown etiology (unknown cause) detected in Wuhan"

An "urgent notice on the treatment of pneumonia of unknown cause" was issued to the Wuhan Municipal Health Center.

As a result of the official announcement of the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan immediately tightened their inbound screening processes.

Qu Shiqian, a vendor at the Huanan Seafood Market, said government officials had disinfected the premises on 31 December 2019 and told stallholders to wear masks. Qu said he had only learnt of the pneumonia outbreak from media reports. "Previously I thought they had flu," he said. "It should be not serious. We are fish traders. How can we get infected?"

"Chinese state television reported that a team of experts from the National Health Commission had arrived in Wuhan on 31 December 2019 to lead the investigation, while the People's Daily said the exact cause remained unclear and it would be premature to speculate." Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported that a team of senior health experts had been dispatched to the city of Wuhan and were reported to be "conducting relevant inspection and verification work."

Tao Lina, a public health expert and former official with Shanghai's Centre for disease control and prevention, said, "I think we are [now] quite capable of killing it in the beginning phase, given China's disease control system, emergency handling capacity and clinical medicine support."

1-3 January 2020
According to information reported by the South China Morning Post on 13 March 2020, Chinese authorities had identified 266 people who had been infected before the beginning of 2020.

According to the Chinese state-sponsored Xinhua News, the Huanan Seafood Market was closed on 1 January 2020 for "regulation." However, in the Consortium's report of 24 January 2020, it was stated that the Huanan Seafood Market had been closed on 2020-01-01 for "cleaning and disinfection. However the virus could only stay on surfaces for so long so this was useless"

On 2 January, 41 admitted hospital patients in Wuhan, China, were confirmed to have contracted (laboratory-confirmed) the 2019-nCoV (Novel coronavirus); 27 (66%) patients had direct exposure to Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. All 41 patients were subsequently relocated from the hospital they had originally been diagnosed in to the Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan, China.

On 3 January 2020, Chinese scientists at the National Institute of Viral Disease Control and Prevention (IVDC) determined the genetic sequence of the novel β-genus coronaviruses (naming it '2019-nCoV') from specimens collected from patients in Wuhan, China, and three distinct strains were established.

Health authorities in Wuhan reported 44 cases, a big jump from the 27 reported on Tuesday. Eleven of the 44 were seriously ill, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said, although there had been no reported deaths to date. The health of the 121 close contacts of the cases was being monitored.

On 3 January 2020, Dr. Li Wenliang, a Wuhan ophthalmologist, was summoned to the Wuhan Public Security Bureau where he was told to sign an official confession and admonition letter promising to cease spreading false "rumors" regarding the coronavirus. In the letter, he was accused of "making false comments" that had "severely disturbed the social order". The letter stated, "We solemnly warn you: If you keep being stubborn, with such impertinence, and continue this illegal activity, you will be brought to justice—is that understood?" Dr. Li signed the confession writing: "Yes, I understand."

In late January, The Supreme People's Court rebuked police for punishing Li and his fellow doctors. The Wuhan police clarified that Li Wenliang was not arrested or fined, but was warned as he had spread that "There had been 7 confirmed cases of SARS", which was not true.

The HHS Secretary Dr. Alex Azar was alerted on January 3 that CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield had discussions with Chinese doctors about the virus.

4 January
The head of the University of Hong Kong's Centre for Infection, Ho Pak-leung, warned that the city should implement the strictest possible monitoring system for a mystery new viral pneumonia that infected dozens of people on the mainland, as it was highly possible that the illness was spreading from human to human. The microbiologist also warned that there could be a surge in cases during the upcoming Chinese New Year. Ho said he hoped the mainland would release more details as soon as possible about the patients infected with the disease, such as their medical history, to help experts analyse the illness and to allow for more effective preventive measures to be put in place.

The Singapore Ministry of Health said on Saturday, 4 January, that it had been notified of the first suspected case of the "mystery Wuhan virus" in Singapore, involving a three-year-old girl from China who had pneumonia and a travel history to the Chinese city of Wuhan. On 5 January, the Singapore Ministry of Health released a press statement stating that the earlier suspected case was not linked to the pneumonia cluster in Wuhan and was also tested negative for the SARS and MERS-CoV.

Chinese officials were criticized for failing to disclose any information about the "mysterious virus" that machine translations of official reports suggested may be caused by a new coronavirus.

The WHO waited for China to release information about the "mysterious new pneumonia virus". The United Nations agency activated its incident-management system at the country, regional and global level and was standing ready to launch a broader response if it was needed. The WHO's regional office in Manila said in Twitter posts Saturday.: "#China has reported to WHO regarding a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, Hubei Province.The Govt has also met with our country office, and updated @WHO on the situation. Govt actions to control the incident have been instituted and investigations into the cause are ongoing."

The Wuhan Institute of Virology didn't respond to an emailed request for comment on the infectious source.

5-8 January
The number of suspected cases reached 59 with seven in a critical condition. All were quarantined and local medical officials commenced the monitoring of 163 of their contacts. At this time, there had been no reported cases of human-to-human transmission or presentations in healthcare workers.

On Monday, 6 January, the Wuhan health authorities announced they continued seeking the cause but had so far ruled out influenza, avian influenza, adenovirus, and coronaviruses SARS and MERS as the respiratory pathogen that had infected 59 people as of 5 January.

Since the outburst of social media discussion of the mysterious pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan, China, Chinese authorities censored the hashtag #WuhanSARS and were now investigating anyone who was allegedly spreading misleading information about the outbreak on social media.

The world continued to wait for China to disclose more information about what had triggered an unexplained pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan, China's tenth-largest city.

"The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a travel notice Monday for travelers to Wuhan, Hubei province, China due to the cluster of cases of pneumonia of an unknown etiology…"

Scientists in China announced the discovery of a new coronavirus.

South Korea announced the first possible case of virus coming from China. South Korea put a 36-year-old Chinese woman under isolated treatment amid concerns that she had brought back a form of viral pneumonia that had sickened dozens in mainland China and Hong Kong in the previous weeks. The unidentified woman, who worked for a South Korean company near capital Seoul, had experienced cough and fever since returning from a five-day trip to China on 30 December, the KCDC said in a press release. The woman had spent time in Wuhan, China, but had not visited the Huanan Seafood Market.

9 January
The WHO confirmed that the novel coronavirus had been isolated from one person who had been hospitalised. On the same day, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control posted its first risk assessment. The WHO also reported that Chinese authorities had acted swiftly, identifying the novel coronavirus within weeks of the onset of the outbreak, with the total number of positively tested people being 41. The first death from the virus occurred in a 61-year-old man who was a regular customer at the market. He had several significant medical conditions, including chronic liver disease, and died from heart failure and pneumonia. The incident was reported in China by the health commission via Chinese state media on 11 January.

Chinese scientists reported on Chinese state broadcaster CCTV that they had found a new "coronavirus in 15 of 57 patients with the illness in the central city of Wuhan, saying it has been preliminarily identified as the pathogen for the outbreak". The scientists announced that the current 'Wuhan Virus', a coronavirus, appears to not be as lethal as SARS. They reported that the new viral outbreak was first detected in the city of Wuhan on 12 December 2019. Additionally, a total of 59 people have been identified as contracting the illness, seven patients had been in a critical condition at some stage, and no healthcare workers were reported as having been infected.

10 January
The gene sequencing data of the isolated 2019-nCoV, a virus from the same family as the SARS coronavirus, was posted on Virological.org by researchers from Fudan University, Shanghai. A further three sequences from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, one from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, and one from Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan were posted to the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) portal. The same day, Public Health England issued its guidance.

On 10 January 2020, Dr. Li Wenliang, Chinese ophthalmologist and coronavirus whistleblower, started having symptoms of a dry cough. On 12 January 2020, Dr. Wenliang started having a fever. He was admitted to the hospital on 14 January 2020. His parents also contracted the coronavirus (presumably from Dr. Wenliang) and were admitted to the hospital with him. Dr. Wenliang tested negative several times for the coronavirus until finally testing positive on 30 January 2020.

First two patients in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China attend University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital.

11-16 January
The first two patients in Shenzhen city transferred into negative pressure room in Third People's Hospital of Shenzhen City due to matching lab test result, symptoms, and epidemiology and are being listed as suspected cases. The cases were not confirmed at the time, because requirement from the Chinese government at the time was that first case in each individual cities need to be submitted to provincial CDC, verified by national CDC, and then evaluated and confirmed by a specific diagnostic team in national CDC.

In China, more than 700 close contacts of the 41 confirmed cases, including more than 400 healthcare workers, had been monitored, with no new cases reported in China since 5 January. The WHO published initial guidance on travel advice, testing in the laboratory and medical investigation.

The USCDC announced that the genome had been posted on the NIH genetic sequence database, GenBank. On the same day, Thailand witnessed the first confirmed case of 2019-nCoV, the first outside China. The affected 61-year-old Chinese woman, who is a resident of Wuhan, had not visited the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, but was noted to have been to other markets. She had arrived in Bangkok on 8 January.

On 14 January, two of the 41 confirmed cases in Wuhan were reported to include a married couple, raising the possibility of human-to-human transmission.

On 14 January, Maria Van Kerkhove, acting head of WHO's emerging diseases unit said that there had been limited human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus, mainly small clusters in families, adding that "it is very clear right now that we have no sustained human-to-human transmission"

A second death occurred in a 69-year-old man in China on 15 January. The WHO published a protocol on diagnostic testing for 2019-nCoV, developed by a virology team from Charité Hospital.

On 16 January, the WHO was alerted by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare that the first case in Japan, a 30-year-old male Chinese national had tested positive to 2019-nCoV during a hospital stay between 10 and 15 January. He had not visited the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, but possibly had close contact with an affected person in Wuhan.

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17 January
On 17 January, Thailand's second confirmed case was reported in a 74-year-old woman who arrived in Bangkok on a flight from Wuhan. The number of laboratory-confirmed cases rose to 45 in China.

Yang Xiaobo, head of the Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, died of pneumonia caused by the virus on 17 January.

18 January
After the first 41 laboratory-confirmed cases were identified on January 2, 2020, Chinese officials announced no new cases for the next 16 days, then reported 17 additional laboratory-confirmed cases, three of which were in critical condition. This brought the number of laboratory-confirmed cases in China to 62. The patients' ages ranged from 30 to 79. 19 were discharged and eight remain critical.

On the same day, the Wuhan City government held an annual banquet in the Baibuting community celebrating the Chinese New Year with forty thousand families in attendance despite the officials' knowledge of the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus. They shared meals, plates and ate together. On 21 January 2020 when Wuhan mayor Zhou Xianwang was asked on state television why this banquet was held even after the number of cases had risen to 312 he responded, "The reason why the Baibuting community continued to host the banquet this year was based on the previous judgment that the spread of the epidemic was limited between humans, so there was not enough warning."

19 January
On 19 January, the first confirmed cases were reported in China, outside Wuhan, one in the southern province of Guangdong and two in Beijing. Wuhan reported 136 additional laboratory-confirmed cases, bringing the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases in China to 201. A new death was also reported in Wuhan, bringing the total number of fatalities in China to three.

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20-31 December 2019
On 2019-12-20, Winner Medical Group decided to cancel their executive meeting in Hubei.

On 2019-12-30, an "urgent notice on the treatment of pneumonia of unknown cause" was issued by the Medical Administration and Medical Administration of Wuhan Municipal Health Committee.

The Wuhan Municipal Health Commission also made a public announcement regarding the situation.

A famous police officer in Jiangning District, Nanjing mentioned the BSL-4 laboratory of Wuhan Institute of Virology when commenting on the outbreak by expressing confidence on its technological power and ability to fix the incident.

1-3 January 2020
Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, the source of the initial pneumonia cases, was closed on 2020-01-01 for cleaning and disinfection. On the same day, Chinese state news reported that Wuhan police interviewed eight residents for spreading "misinformation" referring to the new infection as another SARS and "exaggerating" the danger. However, CNA reported on the same date that Wuhan police said they had punished eight people for "publishing or forwarding false information on the internet without verification."

On 2020-01-01, a genetic sequencing company was notified by the Wuhan Municipal Health Committee that further sequencing of novel coronavirus samples were no longer allowed, existing samples must be destroyed and all data must be kept secret.

On 2020-01-02, Central Hospital of Wuhan banned its staffs from discussing the disease publicly or recording them using text or image that can be used as evidence; situation of individual patients can only be mentioned verbally when doctors change shift.

On 2020-01-03, China's National Health Committee Office published an announcement classifying the novel coronavirus as a highly pathogenic microorganisms (type 2), and request all the samples to be handed to provincial or higher level health authority, other organization or person with the virus sample should either destroy or transfer them and keep the log, and emphasis that all data must be kept secret and prior approval from the authority will be needed before any results can be published.

7-15 January
On 2020-01-07, Chinese president and party secretary Xi Jinping raised demand on the prevention and control of the pneumonia epidemic caused by novel coronavirus in Wuhan in a Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China meeting, according to article published by himself in February.

1/8, The Chinese government agrees to accept a WHO scientific team to assist their own researchers.

1/10, The gene sequencing data of the isolated 2019-nCoV, a virus from the same family as the SARS coronavirus, was posted on Virological.org by researchers from Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center and Fudan University, Shanghai. A further three sequences from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, one from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, and one from Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan were posted to the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) portal. The same day, Public Health England issued its guidance.

Beginning of the 2020 Chunyun travel season in China.

1/12, Hubei's provincial representatives from all over the province met in Wuhan until 18 January.

Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, the facility that published the first genome sequence of the virus, was closed without reason.

1/14, Reporters from Hong Kong being taken to police station after trying to film situation within Wuhan hospital.

1/15, Representative from Chinese government and American government sign the phase one trade deal over bilateral trade conflict in Washington D.C.

30–31 December 2019
In response to Wuhan authority announcement on the "pneumonia of unknown cause", Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan immediately tightened their inbound screening processes as a result.

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are alerted to an unexplained "cluster of 27 cases of pneumonia” in Wuhan on December 31, 2019.

3-16 January 2020
1/3, Thailand began screening passengers arriving from Wuhan at four different airports.

Singapore has also begun screening passengers at Changi Airport.

1/6, The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (USCDC) issued a travel watch at Level 1 ("Practice usual precautions") on 6 January, with recommendations on washing hands and more specifically advising avoiding animals, animal markets, and contact with unwell people if travelling to Wuhan.

The US CDC offers to send a US team to assist Chinese experts in their research in regard to transmissibility, severity, and incubation period of the disease.

Hong Kong began screening passengers arriving on trains stopped at Wuhan.

1/13, A Wuhan resident, the first confirmed case of COVID-19 outside China, was diagnosed in Bangkok, Thailand.

1/16, Japan reports its first case.