COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei
The COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei was the first identified outbreak of the COVID-19 virus. It emerged as a cluster of mysterious pneumonia cases in Wuhan, the provincial capital of Hubei, China. A Wuhan hospital initially notified the local Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention on December 27, 2019. By December 31, Wuhan CCDC confirmed a cluster of unknown pneumonia cases linked to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market after unverified documents appeared on the Internet. The outbreak got nationwide attention, with the National Health Commission in Beijing sending medical experts to Wuhan the next day. On January 8, 2020, a new coronavirus was identified as the cause of the pneumonia. The sequence of the virus was published on an open-access database. The measures taken by the Chinese government have been controversial. They were praised by the World Health Organization for improvements over their response to SARS-CoV-2. However, many in the international community criticized them for being deceptive, slow to publicly disclose key facts about the outbreak, and for aggressively censoring information related to the outbreak and public discontent from citizens online.
The delayed and controversial response by authorities in Wuhan and Hubei failed to contain the outbreak in the early stages, leading to criticism from the public and the media. By January 29, the virus had spread to all provinces of mainland China. In response, all provinces of China initiated their highest response level for public health emergencies. On January 31, the WHO declared the outbreak a "public health emergency of international concern." By February 8, over 724 had died from the coronavirus infection-associated pneumonia, and 34,878 were confirmed to be infected. In Hubei alone, there were 24,953 cases of infection and 699 COVID-19–related deaths.
The General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping, warned about a "grave situation" facing China. The Politburo of the Communist Party of China formed a special leading group for epidemic control led by Premier Li Keqiang. The Chinese New Year celebrations planned for January 25 through February 4 were cancelled, and those traveling for the event were checked for their temperatures as travel restrictions went into effect. Commands for Epidemic Control were created in several regions including Wuhan and Hubei. Many inter-province bus services and railway services were suspended. By January 29, all Hubei cities were quarantined. Curfew laws were implemented in Huanggang and Wenzhou, and in several other mainland cities. The region also saw a huge shortage of face masks and other personal protective equipment despite being the world's biggest manufacturing hub for those products.
As reported cases increased and the virus spread internationally, instances of conspiracy theories, discrimination, and xenophobic violence both regionally in China and abroad exploded in frequency, despite many international governments unilaterally condemning the actions. Rumours fueled by lack of government transparency and fear of the public health crisis circulated across Chinese social media, which were countered by the CCP in an attempt to restore the Chinese people's faith in government leaders.
Early response by Wuhan
Mysterious pneumonia outbreak
Discovery
On March 13, 2020, an unverified report from the South China Morning Post suggested that a COVID-19 case, traced back to November 17, 2019, in a 55-year-old from Hubei province, may have been the first patient. On March 27, 2020, news outlets citing a government document reported that a 57-year-old woman, who had tested positive for the coronavirus disease on December 10, 2019 and was described in The Wall Street Journal on March 6, 2020, may have been patient zero in the COVID-19 pandemic. A viral pneumonia patient with an unknown cause was hospitalized at Jinyintan Hospital on December 1, 2019, even though the patient did not have any exposure to the Huanan Seafood Market. An outbreak of the virus began among people who had been exposed to the market nine days later. On December 26, Shanghai PHC received a sample from a patient with unknown pneumonia from Wuhan CCDC and Wuhan Central Hospital. They started an investigation into the sample, which was then confirmed to contain a new coronavirus.However, the outbreak went unnoticed until a cluster of unknown pneumonias was observed by a Wuhan doctor named Zhang Jixian. Zhang was an ICU doctor at Hubei Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine. Her experience fighting SARS in 2003 kept her alert to the possibility of a public health emergency. On December 26, 2019, a senior couple who lived near Zhang's hospital came to her for their fever and cough. The CT scan results of the couple's thorax showed unusual changes in the lungs that were different from those in any known viral pneumonia. Dr. Zhang advised the couple's son to see her and found similar conditions. On the same day, Dr. Zhang saw a patient from the Huanan Seafood Market that also had unusual conditions.
On December 27, Zhang reported her discovery to her hospital and the hospital soon informed Jianghan CCDC, thinking that it might be an infectious disease as indicated by the familial cluster. As a precaution, she told her colleagues to wear protective gear and prepare a specialized area in the hospital to receive patients with similar conditions.
On December 28 and 29, three more patients came to the hospital's clinic, all of whom were related to the Huanan Seafood Market. The hospital notified the provincial and municipal health commissions. On December 29, the health commissions appointed Wuhan and Jianghan CCDC and Jinyintan Hospital to undertake epidemiological research for the seven patients. Six were then transferred to Jinyintan, a specialized facility for infectious diseases. Only one patient refused the transfer. Dr. Zhang Jixian's discovery was later widely praised. Hubei's government honored her and Zhang Dingyu, the president of Jinyintan, for their contribution to controlling the viral outbreak.
Disclosure
On the evening of December 30, two emergent notice letters from the Municipal Health Commission of Wuhan began circulating online. This was soon confirmed by Wuhan CCDC, which admitted on December 31 that there were 27 cases of pneumonia of unknown cause. The letters required all hospitals in Wuhan to report any pneumonia patient with unknown causes related to the Huanan Seafood Market. After a rumor about it circulated on the internet, Wuhan CCDC told The Beijing News the investigation was still underway and that experts from NHC were on the way to help the investigation.On January 1, 2020, the seafood market was closed down by Jianghan District's Health Agency and Administration for Market Regulation due to an "environment improvement." According to China Business, workers in hazmat suits were inspecting the market and collecting samples. The storekeepers at the market said that they were not told what the people were collecting and detecting. The urban management officers and police officers were on the spot to ask the storekeepers to finish up and leave the market. The first death from the new virus was reported on January 11.
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. Implementing these measures made Chinese perceptions of the government's response more favorable.
Several doctors were warned by the Wuhan police for "spreading misinformation". According to Wang Gaofei, Weibo's CEO, eight "rumormongers" who were all doctors at Wuhan hospitals were summoned by the police on January 3. Li Wenliang, one of the whistleblowers, died from the virus on February 7; the same day that the discoverers of the outbreak, Zhang Jixian and Zhang Dingyu, were honored by Hubei's government. The death of Dr. Li led to widespread grief and criticism towards the government.