Chart 3. Cumulative Total of Outstanding Cases on the Chinese Mainland
Chart 4. Daily Figure for Cured Cases on the Chinese Mainland
China's fight against the epidemic can be divided into five stages.
Stage I: Swift Response to the Public Health Emergency
(December 27, 2019-January 19, 2020)
As soon as cases of pneumonia of unknown cause were identified in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China acted immediately to conduct etiological and epidemiological investigations and to stop the spread of the disease, and promptly reported the situation. In a timely manner, China informed the WHO and other countries, including the US, of the developing situation, and released the genome sequence of the novel coronavirus. After community spread and clusters of cases emerged in Wuhan, and confirmed cases were reported in other Chinese regions, which were due to virus carriers traveling from the city, a nationwide program of epidemic prevention and control was launched.
(1) December 27, 2019: Hubei Provincial Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine reported cases of pneumonia of unknown cause to the Wuhan Jianghan Center for Disease Prevention and Control. The Wuhan city government arranged for experts to look into these cases through an analysis of the patients' condition and clinical outcome, the findings of epidemiological investigations, and preliminary laboratory testing results. The conclusion was that they were cases of a viral pneumonia.
(2) December 30: The Wuhan City Health Commission (WCHC)issued Urgent Notice on Treatment of Patients with Pneumonia of Unknown Cause. Upon learning of developments, the National Health Commission (NHC) acted immediately to organize research into the disease.
