COVID-19 pandemic in mainland China

COVID-19 pandemic in mainland China
DiseaseCOVID-19
Virus strainSARS-CoV-2
LocationMainland China
First outbreakWuhan, Hubei[1]
Index case1 December 2019
(4 years, 3 months, 4 weeks and 2 days ago)
Confirmed cases99,343,195[2]
Suspected cases‡1.1 billion+ (CCDC estimate in January 2022)[3]
Deaths
122,046[2]
Vaccinations
  • 1,310,292,000[2] (total vaccinated)
  • 1,276,760,000[2] (fully vaccinated)
  • 3,491,077,000[2] (doses administered)
‡Suspected cases have not been confirmed by laboratory tests as being due to this strain, although some other strains may have been ruled out.

The COVID-19 pandemic started with a large number of unknown, possible pneumonia cases in the city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, China. A Wuhan hospital told the local center for disease control and prevention (CDC) and health commissions on 27 December 2019.

The beginning[change | change source]

On 31 December, the Wuhan CDC told the media that there was a large number of unknown pneumonia cases related to Huanan Seafood Market.

The possible disease outbreak soon became known nationwide including that of the National Health Commission (NHC) in Beijing who sent experts to Wuhan on the following day. Chinese authorities notified the World Health Organisation on this same day.[4] On 8 January, a new coronavirus was identified as the cause of the pneumonia.[5]

Government response[change | change source]

Public and media criticized Chinese officials for a slow response to fight the outbreak when it first started.[6] By 29 January, the virus spread to all provinces of mainland China.[7][8][9] All provinces of mainland China began a large public health emergency.[10] The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a "Public Health Emergency of International Concern" on 31 January,[9] saying that there are reasons that it could spread to other countries, such as those without robust healthcare systems.[11][12] By 8 February, over 724 died from the coronavirus and 34,878 were confirmed to have been infected. In Hubei alone, there were 24,953 cases of infections and 699 related deaths.[13]

The Chinese government may have censored talks about the outbreak since the beginning of its spread.[14][15] On 25 January, Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping warned about a "grave situation" in China.[16][17]

The Chinese New Year celebrations were cancelled. Passengers across the country have been checked for their temperatures.[18]

By 29 January, all Hubei cities were quarantined.[19] Curfew laws were added in Huanggang, Wenzhou,[20] and other mainland cities.[21]

Shortages[change | change source]

In February 2020, the region also saw a huge shortage of face masks and other protective gear even though China called themselves the world's largest makers of these masks.[22] Other countries donated medical supplies to help China deal with the epidemic.[23][24][25]

Lowering numbers[change | change source]

On 25 February, the number of newly confirmed cases outside mainland China passed those from within for the first time.[26] By 6 March the reported number of new cases had dropped to well fewer than 100 nationally per day, down from thousands per day.

Origin[change | change source]

Many human coronaviruses have their origin in bats.[27] The human coronavirus NL63 shared a common ancestor with a bat coronavirus (ARCoV.2) between 1190 and 1449 AD.[28] The human coronavirus 229E shared a common ancestor with a bat coronavirus (GhanaGrp1 Bt CoV) between 1686 and 1800 AD.[29] More recently, alpaca coronavirus and human coronavirus 229E diverged sometime before 1960.[30]

MERS-CoV emerged in humans from bats through the intermediate host of camels.[31] MERS-CoV, although related to several bat coronavirus species, appears to have diverged from these several centuries ago.[32]

The most closely related bat coronavirus and SARS-CoV diverged in 1986.[33] The ancestors of SARS-CoV first infected leaf-nose bats; later, they spread to horseshoe bats, then to Asian palm civets, and finally to humans.[34][35]

Racism[change | change source]

Racism among Asians such as Chinese people grew during the pandemic such as criticisms of their markets, lifestyles and food choices.[36][37] Some rumors say that China made the virus in a lab.[38][39]

Notes[change | change source]

References[change | change source]

  1. ↑ Sheikh, Knvul; Rabin, Roni Caryn (10 March 2020). "The Coronavirus: What Scientists Have Learned So Far". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Ritchie, Hannah; Mathieu, Edouard; Rodés-Guirao, Lucas; Appel, Cameron; Giattino, Charlie; Ortiz-Ospina, Esteban; Hasell, Joe; Macdonald, Bobbie; Beltekian, Diana; Dattani, Saloni; Roser, Max (2020–2023). "Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19)". Our World in Data. Retrieved 2024-03-31.
  3. ↑ "China says COVID outbreak has infected 80% of population". Reuters. 21 January 2023.
  4. ↑ "Pneumonia of unknown cause – China". WHO. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  5. ↑ Khan, Natasha (9 January 2020). "New Virus Discovered by Chinese Scientists Investigating Pneumonia Outbreak". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on 2 February 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
  6. ↑ Yuan, Li (28 January 2020). "Coronavirus Crisis Exposes Cracks in China's Facade of Unity". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 29 January 2020. Retrieved 3 February 2020.
  7. ↑ 眾新聞 | 【武漢肺炎大爆發】西藏首宗確診 全國淪陷 內地確診累計7711宗 湖北黃岡疫情僅次武漢. 眾新聞 (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2 February 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
  8. ↑ Chappell, Bill (30 January 2020). "Coronavirus Has Now Spread To All Regions Of mainland China". NPR. Archived from the original on 2 February 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Coronavirus declared global health emergency". BBC News. 31 January 2020. Archived from the original on 30 January 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
  10. ↑ 中国内地31省份全部启动突发公共卫生事件一级响应. Caixin. 29 January 2020. Archived from the original on 2 February 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
  11. ↑ "IHR Emergency Committee on Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV)". www.who.int. WHO.
  12. ↑ "Coronavirus: WHO declare public health emergency". Medical News Today. Archived from the original on 2 February 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
  13. ↑ "Tracking coronavirus: Map, data and timeline". Bnonews. n.d.
  14. ↑ Javier C. Hernández. "As China Cracks Down on Coronavirus Coverage, Journalists Fight Back - The New York Times". The New York Times. Retrieved 2020-04-06.
  15. ↑ "Coronavirus: Chinese app WeChat censored virus content since 1 Jan - BBC News". BBC News. 4 March 2020. Retrieved 2020-04-06.
  16. ↑ "CPC leadership meets to discuss novel coronavirus prevention, control". People's Daily. 25 January 2020. Archived from the original on 25 January 2020. Retrieved 26 January 2020. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, chaired the meeting.
  17. ↑ "Xi says China faces 'grave situation' as virus death toll hits 42". Reuters. 26 January 2020. Archived from the original on 3 February 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
  18. ↑ "China virus spread is accelerating, Xi warns". BBC News. 26 January 2020. Archived from the original on 2 February 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
  19. ↑ 襄阳火车站关闭，湖北省最后一个地级市"封城". 国际金融报. 29 January 2020. Archived from the original on 2 February 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2020 – via The Paper.
  20. ↑ Yang, Danxu (杨丹旭) (2 February 2020). 中国确诊及死亡病例创单日新高 黄冈恐成"第二个武汉". Zaobao (in Chinese (Singapore)). Archived from the original on 2 February 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
  21. ↑ 温州之后，杭州台州宁波多地实施最严禁令. 川报观察 (in Simplified Chinese). 3 February 2020. Archived from the original on 2 April 2020. Retrieved 3 February 2020.
  22. ↑ Safi (now), Michael; Rourke (earlier), Alison; Greenfield, Patrick; Giuffrida, Angela; Kollewe, Julia; Oltermann, Philip (3 February 2020). "China issues 'urgent' appeal for protective medical equipment – as it happened". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 4 February 2020. Retrieved 4 February 2020.
  23. ↑ "Equatorial Guinea donates $2m to China to help combat coronavirus". Africanews. 5 February 2020.
  24. ↑ "Feature: Japan offers warm support to China in battle against virus outbreak - Xinhua". Xinhuanet.com. 2020-02-13. Archived from the original on 2021-08-18. Retrieved 2020-04-11.
  25. ↑ "China's Xi Writes Thank-You Letter to Bill Gates for Virus Help". Bloomberg. 2020-02-21. Retrieved 2020-04-11.
  26. ↑ "WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the mission briefing on COVID-19 – 26 February 2020". World Health Organization. 26 February 2020.
  27. ↑ Wertheim JO, Chu DK, Peiris JS, Kosakovsky Pond SL, Poon LL 2013. A case for the ancient origin of coronaviruses. Journal of Virology. 87 (12): 7039–45. doi:10.1128/JVI.03273-12. PMC 3676139. PMID 23596293
  28. ↑ Huynh J, Li S, Yount B, Smith A, Sturges L, Olsen JC, et al. (December 2012). "Evidence supporting a zoonotic origin of human coronavirus strain NL63". Journal of Virology. 86 (23): 12816–25. doi:10.1128/JVI.00906-12. PMC 3497669. PMID 22993147. If these predictions are correct, this observation suggests that HCoV-NL63 may have originated from bats between 1190 and 1449 AD.
  29. ↑ Pfefferle S, Oppong S, Drexler JF, Gloza-Rausch F, Ipsen A, Seebens A, et al. (September 2009). "Distant relatives of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus and close relatives of human coronavirus 229E in bats, Ghana". Emerging Infectious Diseases. 15 (9): 1377–84. doi:10.3201/eid1509.090224. PMC 2819850. PMID 19788804. The most recent common ancestor of hCoV-229E and GhanaBt-CoVGrp1 existed in ≈1686–1800 AD.
  30. ↑ Crossley BM, Mock RE, Callison SA, Hietala SK (December 2012). "Identification and characterization of a novel alpaca respiratory coronavirus most closely related to the human coronavirus 229E". Viruses. 4 (12): 3689–700. doi:10.3390/v4123689. PMC 3528286. PMID 23235471.
  31. ↑ Forni D, Cagliani R, Clerici M, Sironi M (January 2017). "Molecular Evolution of Human Coronavirus Genomes". Trends in Microbiology. 25 (1): 35–48. doi:10.1016/j.tim.2016.09.001. PMC 7111218. PMID 27743750.
  32. ↑ Lau SK, Li KS, Tsang AK, Lam CS, Ahmed S, Chen H, et al. (August 2013). "Genetic characterization of Betacoronavirus lineage C viruses in bats reveals marked sequence divergence in the spike protein of pipistrellus bat coronavirus HKU5 in Japanese pipistrelle: implications for the origin of the novel Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus". Journal of Virology. 87 (15): 8638–50. doi:10.1128/JVI.01055-13. PMC 3719811. PMID 23720729.
  33. ↑ Vijaykrishna D, Smith GJ, Zhang JX, Peiris JS, Chen H, Guan Y (April 2007). "Evolutionary insights into the ecology of coronaviruses". Journal of Virology. 81 (8): 4012–20. doi:10.1128/jvi.02605-06. PMC 1866124. PMID 17267506.
  34. ↑ Gouilh MA, Puechmaille SJ, Gonzalez JP, Teeling E, Kittayapong P, Manuguerra JC (October 2011). "SARS-Coronavirus ancestor's foot-prints in South-East Asian bat colonies and the refuge theory". Infection, Genetics and Evolution. 11 (7): 1690–702. doi:10.1016/j.meegid.2011.06.021. PMC 7106191. PMID 21763784.
  35. ↑ Cui J, Han N, Streicker D, Li G, Tang X, Shi Z, et al. (October 2007). "Evolutionary relationships between bat coronaviruses and their hosts". Emerging Infectious Diseases. 13 (10): 1526–32. doi:10.3201/eid1310.070448. PMC 2851503. PMID 18258002.
  36. ↑ Wuhan coronavirus reaches India as countries evacuate citizens from China, 30 January 2020, retrieved 10 February 2020
  37. ↑ Dazed (6 February 2020). "Life under lockdown: Young people in Wuhan tell their coronavirus stories". Dazed. Retrieved 8 February 2020.
  38. ↑ 关于新型冠状病毒肺炎 这九大谣言别"中招". Beijing News (in Chinese (China)). n.d. Archived from the original on 1 February 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
  39. ↑ 聚焦 | 关于新型冠状病毒感染的肺炎疫情的最新辟谣！ (in Chinese (China)). Xinhua News Agency. n.d. Archived from the original on 2 February 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
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