The 2019–2020 COVID-19 outbreak in mainland China was the first COVID-19 outbreak in that country, and the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). China was the first country to experience an outbreak of the disease, the first to impose drastic measures in response (including lockdowns and face mask mandates), and one of the first countries to bring the outbreak under control.
The outbreak was first manifested as a cluster of mysterious pneumonia cases, mostly related to the Huanan Seafood Market, in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province. On 8 January 2020, a new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) was identified as the cause of the pneumonia by Chinese scientists. During the beginning of the pandemic, the Chinese government showed a pattern of secrecy and top-down control. It censored discussions about the outbreak since the beginning of its spread, from as early as 1 January, worked to censor and counter reporting and criticism about the crisis – which included the detention of several citizen journalists – and portray the official response to the outbreak in a positive light, and restricted and facilitated investigations probing the origins of COVID-19. Several commentators suspected the Chinese government had deliberately under-reported the extent of infections and deaths. However, some academic studies have found no evidence that China manipulates COVID-19 data.
The local governments of Wuhan and Hubei were widely criticized for their delayed responses to the virus and their censorship of the related information during the initial outbreak, especially during the local parliamentary sessions. This allowed early spread of the virus, as a large number of Chinese people returned home for the Chinese New Year vacation from and through Wuhan, a major transportation hub. However, stringent measures such as lockdown of Wuhan and the wider Hubei province and face mask mandates were introduced around 23 January, which significantly lowered and delayed the epidemic peak according to epidemiology modelling. Yet, by 29 January, the virus was found to have spread to all provinces of mainland China. By the same date, all provinces had launched high-level public health emergency responses. Many inter-province bus services and railway services were suspended. On 31 January, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. A severe shortage of face masks and other protective gear led several countries to send international aid, including medical supplies, to China.
By late February, the pandemic had been brought under control in most Chinese provinces. On 25 February, the reported number of newly confirmed cases outside mainland China exceeded those reported from within for the first time; the WHO estimated that the measures taken in the country averted a significant number of cases. By 6 March the reported number of new cases had dropped to fewer than 100 nationally per day, down from thousands per day at the height of the crisis. On 13 March, the reported number of newly imported cases passed that of domestically transmitted new cases for the first time.
By the Summer of 2020, widespread community transmission in China had been ended, and restrictions were significantly eased. Sporadic local outbreaks caused by imported cases have happened since then, which authorities responded to with testing and restrictions. Different neighborhoods or townships were classified into high-, medium- or low-risk based on the number of confirmed cases and whether there were cluster cases, which formed the basis for the gradual easing of lockdown measures since March. Lockdown in hard-hit Wuhan was officially lifted on 8 April.
China is one of just a few of countries that have pursued a zero-COVID strategy, which aims to eliminate transmission of the virus within the country and allow resumption of normal economic and social activity.
Despite concerns about automated social control, health codes generated by software have been used for contact tracing: only people with green code can move freely, while those with red or yellow code need to be reported to the government. With domestic tourism first reopened among the pandemic-hit industries, China's economy continued to broaden recovery from the recession during the pandemic, with stable job creation and record international trade growth, although retail consumption was still slower than predicted. China was the only major economy to report economic growth in 2020.
In July 2020, the government granted an emergency use authorization for two COVID-19 vaccines. It has also pledged or provided humanitarian assistance to other countries dealing with the virus.
Initial outbreak
Discovery
Based on retrospective analysis published in The Lancet in late January, the first confirmed patient started experiencing symptoms on 1 December 2019, though the South China Morning Post later reported that a retrospective analysis showed the first case may have been a 55-year-old patient from Hubei province as early as 17 November. On 27 March 2020, news outlets citing a government document reported a 57-year-old woman, who started having symptoms on 10 December 2019 and subsequently tested positive for COVID-19 may have been the index case in the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the first confirmed patient did not have any exposure to Huanan Seafood Market, an outbreak of the virus began among the people who had been exposed to the market nine days later.
The outbreak went unnoticed until 26 December 2019, when Zhang Jixian, director of the Department of Respiratory Medicine at Hubei Xinhua Hospital, noticed a cluster of patients with pneumonia of unknown origin, several of whom had connections to the Huanan Seafood Market. She subsequently alerted the hospital, as well as municipal and provincial health authorities, which issued an alert on 30 December. Results from patient samples obtained on 29–30 December indicated the presence of a novel coronavirus, related to SARS. On 1 January 2020, Jianghan District's Health Agency and Administration for Market Regulation closed down the seafood market and collected samples for testing.
On 28 December 2019, Lili Ren, a virologist at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College in Beijing uploaded a partial sequence of the COVID-19 virus's structure to the United States National Institutes of Health's GenBank. The NIH did not publish the submission, as it did not include technical information required by the institute's rules, and attempts by the NIH to contact Ren went unanswered. On 17 January 2024, The Wall Street Journal released a report about the 28 December upload.
The World Health Organization (WHO) issued its first report on the outbreak on 5 January 2020. Professor Zhang Yongzhen of Fudan University completed sequencing of the novel virus almost identical to the previous 28 December upload on 5 January. On 8 January 2020, a new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, was announced by Chinese scientists as the cause of the new disease. Professor Yongzhen published the results to the online database GenBank on 11 January.
On 14 January, the WHO tweeted:
Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in Wuhan, China.
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On 15 February 2021, WHO investigators in China said they had found evidence that the initial outbreak in Wuhan was more widespread than originally thought. They asked the Chinese government for permission to study hundreds of thousands of blood samples from Wuhan; as of 15 February, this permission had not been granted.
Measures and impact in Hubei
Semi-log graph of 3-day rolling average of new cases and deaths in China during COVID-19 epidemic showing the lockdown on 23 January and partial lifting on 19 March.
Within three weeks of the first known cases, the government built sixteen large mobile hospitals in Wuhan and sent 40,000 medical staff to the city.
A retrospective study of antibody prevalence estimated that close to 500,000 people in Wuhan may have been infected during the outbreak.
Spreading beyond Hubei
On 25 January, Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping warned that China was facing a 'grave situation'. He held a Party Politburo meeting which promised resources and experts for treatment and supplies to Hubei as more and more cases of the viral infection, mostly exported from Wuhan were confirmed in other cities in Hubei and multiple parts in mainland China. On 29 January, Tibet announced its first confirmed case, a male who traveled from Wuhan to Lhasa by rail on 22–24 January which marked that the virus spread to all parts of mainland China.
The 25 January Chinese New Year celebrations were canceled in many cities. Public transportation passengers were checked for their temperatures to see whether they had a fever. Henan, Wuxi, Hefei, Shanghai, Inner Mongolia suspended trade of living poultry on 21 January.
Public Health Emergency declarations
By 21 January, government officials warned against hiding the disease.
On 22 January, Hubei launched a Class 2 Response to Public Health Emergency. Ahead of the Hubei authorities, a Class 1 Response to Public Health Emergency, the highest response level was announced by the mainland province of Zhejiang on 23. Guangdong and Hunan followed suit later on the day. On the following day, Hubei and other 13 mainland provinces also launched a Class 1 Response. By 29, all parts of mainland initiated a Class 1 Response after Tibet upgraded its response level on that day.
The highest response level authorizes a provincial government to requisition resources under the administration to control the epidemic. The government was allowed to organize and coordinate treatment for the patients, make investigations into the epidemic area, declare certain areas in the province as an epidemic control area, issue compulsory orders, manage human movement, publish information and reports, sustain social stability and to do other work related to epidemic control.
Holidays, tourism and events
On 26 January, the State Council extended the 2020 Spring Festival holiday to 2 February (Sunday, the ninth day of the first lunar month) with 3 February (Monday) marking the start of normal work. The educational institutions postponed the start of school. The different provinces made their own policies about holiday extension.
Miss Universe China 2020 was originally scheduled to take place on 8 March 2020; however, on 21 February 2020, the Miss Universe China Organization announced that the pageant was cancelled and postponed to a later date due to the pandemic. The new date was later announced as 9 December 2020.
On 21 January, the Wuhan Culture and Tourism Bureau postponed a tourism promotion activity to the city's citizens. All qualified citizens will be able to continue the qualification in the Bureau's next activity. On 23 January, the Bureau announced the temporary closing of museums, memorials, public libraries and cultural centers in Wuhan from 23 January to 8 February. All tour groups to and from Wuhan will be canceled.
On 23 January, the City Administration of Dongcheng, Beijing cancelled temple fairs in Longtan and Temple of Earth, originally scheduled for 25 January. The Beijing Culture and Tourism Bureau later announced cancellations of all major events including temple fairs. The tourist attractions in Beijing and Tianjin, including the Forbidden City and the National Maritime Museum closed their doors to the public from 24 January. On the evening of 23 January, the Palace Museum decided to shut down from 25 January and the West Lake in Hangzhou announced shutting all paid attractions and the Music Fountain down and suspended the services of all large-scale cruise ships starting the next day. Since 24 January, many major attractions are shut down nationwide including the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing, Shanghai Disneyland, Pingyao Ancient City in Shanxi, Canton Tower in Guangdong, the Old Town of Lijiang, Yunnan and Mount Emei in Sichuan.
Sports
For the 2020 Olympic women's football qualifier, the third round of the Group B matches for the Asian division was planned to be held in Wuhan and later Nanjing, but the match was finally held in Sydney, Australia. The 2020 Chinese FA Super Cup, to be held in Suzhou on 5 February 2020 was postponed. The 2020 Asian Champions League play-off match between Shanghai SIPG and Buriram United were played behind closed doors. The Chinese Football Association announced that the 2020 season is postponed from 30 January. The Asian Football Confederation postponed all home matches for Chinese clubs in the Champions League group stage. The three of them had not played a single game yet as of 3 March 2020.
The Olympic boxing qualifier has also been rescheduled to March and the venue has been moved to Amman, Jordan. The Group B of the Olympic women's basketball qualifiers, originally scheduled to be held in Foshan, Guangdong was also moved to Belgrade, Serbia.
As for the other major sports events, FIS Alpine Ski World Cup, scheduled for 15–16 February 2020 was canceled due to the outbreak. The event was originally planned to be the 2022 Winter Olympics' first test. The 2020 World Athletics Indoor Championships, originally scheduled to take place in Nanjing from 13 to 15 March are postponed for a year and will be held at the same venue. The Confederations Cup Asia Pacific Group I, scheduled to be held in Dongguan, Guangdong was moved to Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
The State General Administration of Sports announced a suspension of all sporting events until April. The Mudanjiang Sports Culture Winter Camp and China Rally Championship Changbai Mountains are both suspended. After the postponement of national women's basketball games, the Chinese Volleyball Association suspended all volleyball matches and activities.
The 2020 Sanya ePrix, due to take place on 21 March as the third round of the Formula E season was postponed to a yet to be announced date. On 12 February, the 2020 Chinese Grand Prix, due to take place on 19 April as the fourth round of the 2020 Formula One World Championship was also postponed.
The Lingshui China Masters badminton tournament, scheduled to commence on 25 February to 1 March 2020 was postponed to early May.
China's 14th National Winter Games, originally scheduled for 16–26 February were also postponed.
Education
On 21 January 2020, the Ministry of Education (MoE) requested the education system to do a good job in the prevention and control of pneumonia caused by novel coronavirus infection. After that, private education providers including New Oriental, NewChannel and TAL Education, education departments in Hubei, Zhejiang, Shenzhen, and Shanghai University cancelled all ongoing courses and postponed the new semester. On 27 January, MoE advised all higher education institutions to postpone the new spring semester with all local education departments to determine the starting time of the new semester for K-12 education and local colleges according to the decision of the local governments. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security also decided to put the new semester off for all vocational education facilities.
The National Education Examinations Authority canceled all IELTS, TOEFL and GRE exams scheduled for February. The decision was first made for tests to be held in Wuhan and extended to those in all parts of mainland China. MoE also urged the Chinese students studying abroad to delay their travels. For those who need to go abroad, MoE advised them to arrive earlier in case of any kind of health check and to stop traveling if they have any signs of coughing and fever.
On 28 January, the National Civil Service Bureau said that it would postpone the 2020 civil service recruitment examination, public selection and public selection interview time.
Civil life
Civil Affairs authorities in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Jinan, Ningbo and Gansu announced on 25 January that they would cancel the special arrangement of marriage registration scheduled for 2 February 2020 to avoid the spread of the epidemic and cross-infection caused by the gathering of people. Later, on 30 January, the Ministry of Civil Affairs ordered to cancel marriage registrations on 2 February.
Religion
The government of China, which upholds a policy of state atheism, used the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic to continue its antireligious campaigns, demolishing Xiangbaishu Church in Yixing and removing a Christian Cross from the steeple of a church in Guiyang County.