china_632

The 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic first manifested as a cluster of mysterious, suspected pneumonia cases in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, China. A Wuhan hospital notified the local center for disease control and prevention (CDC) and health commissions on 27 December 2019. On 31 December Wuhan CDC admitted that there was a cluster of unknown pneumonia cases related to Huanan Seafood Market after the unverified documents appeared on the Internet. The potential disease outbreak soon drew nationwide attention including that of the National Health Commission (NHC) in Beijing who sent experts to Wuhan on the following day. On 8 January, a new coronavirus was identified as the cause of the pneumonia. The sequence of the virus was soon published on an open-access database.