The Wuhan coronavirus, now officially named COVID-19, has near constant media coverage and it is now difficult to see the forest for the trees. There is so much information it is easy to loose the big picture.
We are now at 50 days with the coronavirus and it is safe to say that more money and effort has been put into this public health emergency than any other in human history. To make these events comprehensible, we have a reviewed dozens of official reports from Center for Disease Control, World Health Organization and various governments to produce this 50 Days of Action – Complete Coronavirus COVID-19 Early Timeline.
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“…I think this virus is probably with us beyond this season, beyond this year, and I think eventually the virus will find a foothold and we’ll get community based transmission and you can start to think about it like seasonal flu. The only difference is we don’t understand this virus
Dr. Robert Redfield
Director, CDC, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
NOTE: The first pneumonia illnesses were seen by a small number of doctors in the first week of December 2019 but like many (most?) new diseases doctors take time to figure out that it is ‘novel’.
| Date | Coronavirus COVID-19 Event |
| Dec 28 2019 | Pneumonia cases linked to Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan China |
| Dec 29 2019 | Case-finding activated |
| Dec 30 2019 | Eye Doctor Li Wenliang issues PRIVATE chat message about cases being SARS |
| Dec 31 2019 | World Health Organization, NHC & China Center for Disease Control quietly announce outbreak |
| Dec 31 2019 | China CDC starts Coronavirus gene sequencing |
| Jan 1 2020 | Huanan Seafood Market forcibly closed by Chinese Government |
| Jan 3 2020 | China CDC completes Coronavirus gene sequencing and releases it to World Health Organization |
| Jan 3 2020 | Chinese Government starts ’emergency monitoring’ and ‘close contact management’ in Wuhan |
| Jan 5 2020 | China announces that Wuhan pneumonia cases are not SARS or MERS |
| Jan 6 2020 | China CDC elevates threat to ‘level 2’ emergency |
| Jan 7 2020 | China CDC announces coronavirus is the ‘causative pathogen’ in the outbreak |
| Jan 7 2020 | World Health Organization names this novel coronavirus “2019-nCoV” |
| Jan 9 220 | 61 year old man exposed to virus at the Huanan Seafood Market dies in Wuhan |
| Jan 9 2020 | China CDC shares coronavirus gene sequence publicly |
| Jan 10 2020 | China CDC begins work on amplifying coronavirus for testing using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) |
| Jan 10 2020 | China CDC completes work on ‘PCR reagents‘ to make a coronavirus test possible |
| Jan 11 2020 | Wuhan Municipal Health Commission announces first coronavirus death occurred Jan 9th |
| Jan 13 2020 | First confirmed coronavirus case outside of China is announced in Thailand |
| Jan 15 2020 | China CDC upgrades the coronavirus outbreak to most severe ‘level 1’ |
| Jan 16 2020 | The Chinese city of Wuhan is locked down and those with temperatures >37.3 degrees Celcius cannot leave |
| Jan 17 2020 | Japan announces its first confirmed case of coronavirus, which is the second international case |
| Jan 17 2020 | China announces its second coronavirus death |
| Jan 19 2020 | First confirmed coronavirus case inside China but outside Wuhan is announced |
| Jan 20 2020 | “Novel Coronavirus–Infected Pneumonia” NCIP added to Chinese “Infections Disease Health & Quarantine Law” |
| Jan 20 2020 | China reports 139 cases of coronavirus and a third death |
| Jan 20 2020 | South Korea confirms its first case of coronavirus |
| Jan 21 2020 | China CDC shares coronavirus Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) reagents with public so all labs COULD perform tests |
| Jan 22 2020 | US confirms its first case of coronavirus in Washington State |
| Jan 22 2020 | China CDC announces the Chinese 547 cases and a death toll of 17 |
| Jan 22 2020 | Wuhan becomes quarantined as the airport and railway stations are “temporarily” closed |
| Jan 23 2020 | World Health Organization announces Corona Virus is not YET a global public health emergency |
| Jan 23 2020 | Beijing Culture and Tourism Bureau cancels all lunar new year celebrations as part of the coronavirus containment effort |
| Jan 24 2020 | China starts physical construction of a 1000 be temporary hospital using prefab building blocks and plans to complete it in 6-10 days – China cancels all large scale new years events |
| Jan 24 2020 | The French Government charters a bus to pull its citizens out of Wuhan |
| Jan 25 2020 | Man in his 50’s who recently returned from Wuhan is confirms as Canada’s first case of corona virus in Toronto |
| Jan 25 2020 | The US announces they are chartering a plane to pull diplomats out of Wuhan |
| Jan 26 2020 | The Chinese Association of Travel Services suspends all tours |
| Jan 28 2020 | Chinese President Xi Jinping meet with WHO Director and agree to send international team, including the US CDC to Wuhan |
| Jan 30 2020 | US reports its first confirmed case of person to person transmission of coronavirus occurred in Chicago |
| Jan 30 2020 | Russia closes its 3000 kilometer border with China |
| Jan 31 2020 | Death toll rises to 213 and the number of cases stands at 9776 |
| Jan 31 2020 | UK and Spain evacuate citizens from Wuhan in a joint operation |
| Jan 31 2020 | Singapore and Mongolia close the borders with China to contain the virus |
| Feb 1 2020 | Death toll climbs to 305 and Suspected cases of coronavirus are now at 19544 |
| Feb 3 2020 | After just 8 days, China completes construction of its temporary hospital which has 1000 beds and is named Househusband (Fire God Mountain) |
| Feb 3 2020 | Hundreds of Hong Kong Doctors and medical staff go on strike demanding the border with mainland China be closed |
| Feb 3 2020 | Australia evacuates 243 citizens |
| Feb 4 2020 | Coronavirus cases cross the 20000 mark in China including 492 deaths |
| Feb 4 2020 | Belgium confirms first case of coronavirus was found in a one of the 9 people it evacuated from Wuhan |
| Feb 5 2020 | 3600 passengers on a cruise ship are quarantined on the World Dream anchored in Hong Kong |
| Feb 5 2020 | India confirms all 645 of its evacuees tested negative for coronavirus |
| Feb 5 2020 | China announces it has 132 quarantine sits with 12500 additional beds |
| Feb 6 2020 | China completes construction of its second temporary hospital, this one has 1600 beds and is named Leishenshan (meaning Thunder God Mountain) |
| Feb 6 2020 | Japan announces 41 cases of coronavirus on a cruise ship quarantined in Yokohama harbour |
| Feb 6 2020 | A US citizen living in China is killed by the coronavirus in Wuhan China |
| Feb 6 2020 | Death toll is now at 638 with 31428 coronavirus cases confirmed |
| Feb 6 2020 | China removes tariffs on the importation of medical supplies |
| Feb 7 2020 | Death toll is now at 724 in China with 34881 confirmed cases |
| Feb 8 2020 | Death toll rises to 813 in China which surpasses 2002/3 SARS outbreak which killed 774 |
| Feb 9 2020 | Confirms coronavirus cases are at 37549 worldwide, of which 37198 are in mainland China |
| Feb 9 2020 | All passengers quarantined on a Hong Kong moored cruise ship are releases after 4 days of testing showed no coronavirus infection |
| Feb 9 2020 | Death toll is now at 910 people, 908 in mainland China and confirmed infections tops 40,000 |
| Feb 9 2020 | Hong Kong cruise ship passengers released after all tested negative |
| Feb 10 2020 | Death toll passes 1000 at 1016 with 42000 confirmed cases, including 103 new deaths in the Province it started in – Gov’t ORDERS Factories to stay closed |
| Feb 11 2020 | Death toll at 1100 with 45,513 confirmed cases – 99.1% of cases still in China – 136 confirmed cases on cruise ship in Japan |
| Feb 12 2020 | Death toll at 1261 with 59,283 cases – 175 confirmed infected onboard cruise ship in Japan – Talk of factories reopening in late Feb |
| Feb 13 2020 | Death toll at 1383 with 64,437 cases – North Korea imposes a full month long quarantine of all foreign visitors |
| Feb 14 2020 | Death toll at 1526 with 59,283 cases – France reports first fatality and Egypt reports first African case |
| Feb 15 2020 | Death toll at 1669 with 67,100 cases – Taiwan reports first death – US announces evacuation of citizens on cruise ship in Japan |
| Feb 16 2020 | Death toll at 1781 with 68,506 cases – CDC and others publicly say Coronavirus is unlike SARS and is unlikely to ever fully go away |
Here are some other coronavirus articles of interest:
6 Comments
GGbox · March 11, 2020 at 10:30 pm
I believe a key measure by the US was missed here: Effective March 1, 2020, the US imposed a travel ban on flights from China, a quarantine for citizens who may have been exposed, and screening for anyone coming from China.
GGbox · March 11, 2020 at 10:37 pm
Sorry, wrong date. The date was Jan 31, 2020
Debbie Scrivner · March 19, 2020 at 7:59 pm
I think previous point was the date 1/31/20 for US flight from China closure is missing from your data stream.
Gordon Law, P.C. · December 13, 2021 at 6:38 am
Thank you for the info!
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