TABLE 2.

Brief timeline of the COVID‐19 in China (2019‐2020)

Nov. and Dec. 2019. Pneumonia caused by an unknown virus similar to SARS in 2003–2004 was observed in some hospitals in Wuhan.

Dec. 27. Zhang Jixian, a doctor from Hubei Provincial Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, formally reported the four cases to the hospital and then to the Wuhan Hygiene and Health Commission (Woods, 2020).

Dec. 30. Wuhan Hygiene and Health Commission issued the Urgent Notice on an Unknown Pneumonia Cure Affairs, signifying formal governmental action.

Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital, alarmed his colleagues in social media (WeChat) about a possible outbreak of an illness resembling SARS.

Dec. 31. National Hygiene and Health Commission assigned an expert task force to Wuhan, and formally established the Leading Panel on the Epidemic.

Jan. 3. Li Wenliang was summoned and admonished by Wuhan police for “making false comments on the Internet”.

Jan. 6–10 and Jan. 11–15 were the time for Wuhan and Hubei People's Congress and Political Consultative Conference, respectively. As significant political events, these conferences are held annually at regular time. During that period, the Wuhan and National Hygiene and Health Commission were monitoring the pandemic but announced “no obvious human to human transmission”.

Jan. 9. The WHO released the first statement regarding the cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan (WHO, 2020b).

Jan. 10. The Spring Festival Travel started, which meant that millions of people would travel domestically and internationally.

Jan. 17. The CDC of the United States declared screening travelers from Wuhan for the virus (Ansari & McKay, 2020).

Jan. 20. Reputable academician Zhong Nanshan declared that the disease can transmit human to human on the official news media CCTV.

Wuhan Epidemic Prevention and Control Headquarters (EPCH) was established.

Jan. 23. Wuhan EPCH issued Notice 1, ordering Wuhan lockdown. Most provinces launched the highest level of public hygiene emergency.

Jan. 25. Chinese New Year. The Standing Committee of Political Bureau held a conference and established the Pandemic Leading Task Force.

Jan. 30. The Director‐General of WHO declared that the outbreak of 2019‐nCoV constitutes a PHEIC (WHO, 2020c).

Feb. 3. Fangcang shelter hospitals were adopted and 16 of them with more than 10,000 beds were rebuilt in Wuhan. Medical supply shortage was gradually eased (Chen et al., 2020).

Feb. 13. The Party Secretary of Hubei and Wuhan were removed and replaced.

Mar. 10. All the 16 Fangcang hospitals were closed.

Apr. 8. Wuhan lockdown ended.

Source: News reports collected by the author