The new coronavirus, a mysterious pneumonia-like disease (SARS), has spread throughout China and three other Asian countries since it emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
Alarm raised.
The World Health Organization (WHO) was notified by the Chinese authorities on December 31, 2019 of a number of pneumonia-like cases in Wuhan, a city of 11 million.
The patients are being quarantined, and work begins to identify the origin of the pneumonia.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is identifying a seafood market suspected of being at the center of the outbreak. It closed on January 1, 2020.
New coronavirus.
On January 9, WHO reports that the Wuhan outbreak was caused by a previously unknown type of coronavirus.
To date, 59 people have been infected, of whom seven are in serious condition, according to official figures.
First death.
Chinese health authorities say the first person died from the virus on January 11.
They reduce the number of patients to 41.
Spread outside China.
The virus spreads outside China for the first time on 13 January, according to WHO. The victim is a Chinese woman diagnosed with mild pneumonia who was returning from a trip to Wuhan.
On January 15, the Chinese Health Commission says there is still no confirmed person-to-person transmission of the virus following the Wuhan outbreak, but the possibility “cannot be ruled out.”
The next day, Japan confirmed the first human case of the virus, which remained in Wuhan in early January.
A second person, a 69-year-old man, dies in Wuhan on January 17, according to authorities.
On the same day, the CDC announces that it will begin screening passengers arriving from Wuhan at three airports: San Francisco, New York JFK, and Los Angeles.
Human-to-human transmission has been confirmed.
On January 20, China announced a third death and more than 100 new cases, raising fears ahead of the annual Lunar New Year, which begins on January 25, a time when hundreds of millions of Chinese travel across the country.
The virus is present in Beijing in the north, Shanghai in the east and Shenzhen in the south. More than 200 cases have been reported. The virus was also found in South Korea in a Chinese man who arrived by plane from Wuhan.
Chinese President Xi Jinping says the virus must be 'contained' in his first public comments on the outbreak.
Human-to-human transmission is 'in the affirmative,' says leading Chinese infectious disease expert Zhong Nanshan to state broadcaster CCTV.
Sources: Agence France-Presse
