COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei

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The COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, part of the global COVID-19 pandemic, was the first identified outbreak of the pandemic, appearing as a cluster of mysterious pneumonia in Wuhan, the provincial capital of Hubei, China. A Wuhan hospital notified the local Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and health commissions on December 27, 2019. On December 31, Wuhan CDC admitted that there was a cluster of unknown pneumonia cases related to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market after the unverified documents appeared on the Internet. The outbreak soon drew nationwide attention, with the National Health Commission (NHC) in Beijing sending medical experts to Wuhan the next day. On January 8, a new coronavirus was identified as the cause of the pneumonia.^[4] The sequence of the virus was soon published on an open-access database.^[5] Measures taken by China have been controversial. They were praised by the World Health Organization (WHO) for improvements over SARS-CoV-2 responses, but maligned by many in the international community for being slow to publicly disclose key facts or deceptive about the outbreak and for aggressively censoring information related to the outbreak and public discontent from citizens online.^[6][7][8][9]

A delayed and controversial response by the Wuhan and Hubei authorities failed to contain the outbreak in the early stage, leading to criticism from the public and the media.^[10] By January 29, the virus had spread to all provinces of mainland China.^[11][12][13] By February 8, over 724 died from the coronavirus infection-associated pneumonia and 34,878 were confirmed to be infected. In Hubei alone, there were 24,953 cases of infections and 699 related deaths.^[14] In response, all provinces of mainland China initiated their highest response level for the public health emergency.^[15] On January 31, the WHO declared the outbreak a "public health emergency of international concern".^[13]

The General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping, warned about a "grave situation" facing China.^[16][17] 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 were cancelled. The passengers were checked for their temperatures.^[18] Commands for epidemic control (CEC) were created in several regions including Wuhan and Hubei. Many inter-province bus services^[19] and railway services were suspended.^[20] By January 29, all Hubei cities were quarantined.^[21] Curfew laws were implemented in Huanggang and Wenzhou,^[22] and other mainland cities.^[23] The region also saw a huge shortage of face masks and other protective gears despite being the world's manufacturing hub for those products.^[24]

As reported cases increased, regional discrimination in China and abroad increased, despite many governments urging people not to do it.^[25][26] Rumors circulated across Chinese social media along with counter-rumor efforts by media and governments.^[27][28]