1 February 2020 — In China, confirmed cases now total 14,380 and
the death toll rises above 300.
10th
case is reported in Australia, another returning from Wuhan. Australia banned
the entry of foreign nationals from mainland China and ordered Australian citizens
returning from China to self quarantine for 14 days.
2 February 2020 — The first 2019-nCoV death outside China is
reported in the Philippines. The patient was a 44-year-old Chinese male, and
known companion of the 38-year-old woman who tested positive for 2019-nCoV on
Jan. 30 and the first case in the Philippines. The country also imposes a
travel ban for travellers coming from China, Hong Kong, and Macao, and a 14-day
quarantine period for Philippine residents. In the epicentre, Hubei, the number
of cases exceeds 11,000. Confirmed cases now at 17,205, bringing total global
cases to 17,386, with 362 deaths.
2 more
cases reported also returning from Wuhan.
3 February 2020 — China launches a clinical trial of Gilead’s
antiviral drug remdesivir, previously tested in patients with Ebola, against
the 2019-nCoV. Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan opens; the hospital was built in
10 days for the sole purpose of treating 2019-nCoV patients.
In Hong Kong cases total
20,438, bringing total confirmed cases globally to 20,625, and 426 deaths.
Chinese officials call on the U.S. not to overreact and cause panic over
2019-nCoV. WHO meanwhile launches its own dashboard of 2019-nCoV confirmed cases in China and
globally.
New
Zealand Government announce that foreign travellers from China would be refused
entry to New Zealand unless they had spent 14 days in another country en route.
The Universities asked for exemptions for Chinese students but were refused.
4 February 2020 — Hong Kong reports its first death of a patient
with 2019-nCoV. The 39-year-old man had travel history from Wuhan, the
outbreak’s epicentre. This is the second death linked to the 2019-nCoV reported
outside mainland China, after the Philippines. The total number of deaths from
2019-nCoV stands at 492, and confirmed cases globally over 24,000. Belgium
reports its first case of 2019-nCoV; the patient was repatriated from Wuhan
over the weekend.
Eleven New
Zealanders understood to be on board the quarantined Diamond Princess in
Japan.
5 February 2020 —Ten passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise
ship currently docked in Yokohama, Japan, test positive for 2019-nCoV, bringing
the total cases in Japan to 35, now the highest among countries with confirmed
cases outside mainland China. Global cases total over 28,000, with 565 deaths, although
the majority of cases are still in China. China state media Xinhua also reports
a newborn has been infected with the virus, but the route of transmission is
unknown. The Chinese central government has started penalising officials found
to be neglectful in performing their duties in relation to infection prevention
and control of the outbreak, amid increasing anecdotal reports of government
officials’ slow response to the early days of the outbreak.
A
chartered flight arrived in Auckland with Australian and New Zealand citizens
and residents returning from Wuhan. The Australian citizens were transferred to
an Australian flight, all remaining passengers were quarantined at Whenuapai
for 14 days.
6 February 2020— Total cases in China now at 31,161, and 636
deaths. Outside mainland China, cases at 310, with 2 deaths.
The total
number of cases in Australia had risen to 15.
7 February 2020 — Confirmed cases in Japan jump to 86, as the
number of infected rises to 61 inside a cruise ship (Diamond Princess)
docked in Yokohama. Patients include non-Japanese citizens. A local doctor in
Wuhan, who tried to raise the alarm on the 2019-nCoV in December, dies. His
death causes further angry sentiments in China, where he has been hailed a
hero, with some calling for “freedom of speech” in the country where
communication is tightly controlled by the government.
A
dedicated COVID-19 Healthline set up
8 February 2020 — At a press conference the WHO Director-General criticises the levels of misinformation spreading around the virus. WHO is engaging with Facebook, Google, Tencent,
Baidu, Twitter, TikTok, Weibo, Pinterest, and others to promote accurate
information about 2019-nCoV.
9 February 2020 — The death toll of victims of the 2019-nCoV is now
over 800, surpassing the death toll of the SARS epidemic in 2002 and 2003,
which killed 773 people globally.
10 February 2020 — An advance team for the WHO-led 2019-nCoV
international mission leaves for China. WHO states that instances of onward
transmission from people with no travel history to China are concerning. The
U.K.'s health department declares 2019-nCoV an “imminent threat” to public
health, allowing the government to forcibly quarantine individuals. 168 labs
around the world now have the capacity to diagnose the virus. The death count
at 909 surpasses that associated with Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS),
which has claimed the lives of 858 people.
11 February 2020 — WHO assigns the novel coronavirus its official
name: COVID-19. A global research and innovation forum starts in Geneva, aimed
at creating a roadmap for identifying research priorities on COVID-19. WHO Director-General
calls the outbreak a “very grave threat for the rest of the world” and they say
a vaccine may not be available for 18 months. Death toll from the outbreak
reaches over 1,000.
12 February 2020 — The number of countries outside China reporting
cases has not changed since 4 February. A total of 175 people test positive for
COVID-19 on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which is quarantined in Japan. Cambodia
agrees to accept a cruise ship that had been turned away from five ports, over
fears that passengers might have COVID-19.
13 February 2020 — Overnight, China reports a spike in cases, with
14,840 cases in Hubei province. This coincided with the Chinese government
changing its reporting strategy to include both laboratory-confirmed cases and
clinically diagnosed cases. WHO is only reporting laboratory-confirmed cases as
is the rest of the world. The third death from the virus outside of mainland
China is confirmed in Japan. The previous deaths occurred in Hong Kong and the
Philippines.
14 February 2020 — China reports that 1,716 health workers have
contracted COVID-19 and that six of them have died. This pattern had been seen previously with
both SARS and MERS and the executive director of WHO Health Emergencies
Programme said "Our understanding is that the cases amongst health workers
peaked in the third and fourth week of January and that there has been a rapid
fall-off in the number of cases that have occurred in health workers in the
last two weeks."
15 February 2020 — France reports the first death from COVID-19
outside of Asia — an 80-year-old tourist from Hubei province.
16 February 2020 — An American woman who had been on a cruise ship
that docked in Cambodia, tests positive for COVID-19 after flying to Malaysia.
The ship originally set sail from Hong Kong on Feb.1, with 1,455 passengers and
802 members of its crew. Taiwan reports its first death from COVID-19, marking
the fifth death from the virus outside of mainland China.
17 February 2020 — China publishes a paper with detailed information
on more than 44,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19. The data appears to show that
COVID-19 is not as deadly as other types of coronaviruses, including severe
acute respiratory syndrome and MERS. The data shows that more than 80% of
patients have mild disease; about 14% of cases lead to severe diseases,
including pneumonia; about 5% of cases lead to critical diseases including
respiratory failure, septic shock and multiorgan failure; and about 2% of
reported cases lead to death. Mortality rates increase in older patients, with
few cases among children. WHO switches methods for reporting confirmed COVID-19
cases, now aligning with Chinese government reporting which changed on 13
February. (WHO previously reported only laboratory-confirmed cases but now
includes cases that are clinically confirmed via chest imaging.)
18 February 2020 — There are currently 92 documented cases in 12
countries other than China in which human-to-human transmission of the virus
has occurred. Countries work to evacuate their citizens from the Diamond
Princess cruise ship, which is quarantined in Japan, as the number of
COVID-19 cases on the ship surpasses 450. The levels of community transmission
was higher than had been expected.
19 February 2020 — The death toll from COVID-19 surpasses 2,000. China
revokes the press credentials of three Wall Street Journal
reporters. Their Foreign Ministry says the move was retribution for a recent opinion piece published by the media outlet.
20 February 2020 — South Korea sees a spike in cases, bringing its
count to 104. The
country now has the second-highest number of cases outside of mainland China.
The new cases are concentrated in the city of Daegu and the surrounding North
Gyeongsang province. Outside of China, there are 1,076 cases in 26 countries, with seven deaths. China again
changed the way that it classifies confirmed cases, removing the category of
"clinically diagnosed,” which includes the use of chest exams as some were
found to be COVID-19-negative after laboratory testing.
Four New
Zealand citizens on board the Diamond Princess tested positive and were
being treated in Japan.
21 February 2020 — WHO says it is concerned about the rapid spread of COVID-19
in Iran, which has 18 cases and has seen four deaths in the past two days. The
country reported its first cases on 19 February. Israel confirms its first case
of COVID-19; a person who had been quarantined on the Diamond Princess
cruise ship off Japan’s coast. WHO Director-General says that “We are concerned
about the number of cases with no clear epidemiological link, such as travel
history to China or contact with a confirmed case,” and says that the window of
opportunity to contain the outbreak is “narrowing.” While the number of cases
in China’s Hubei province the epicentre of the outbreak continues to decline, there
is concern about an increase in cases in Shandong province. Over 500 new cases
of COVID-19 are traced to four prisons in China.
22 February 2020 — WHO conducts a survey of African countries to
assess their overall readiness for COVID-19 and finds the regional readiness
level is at about 66%.
23 February 2020 — South Korean President Moon Jae-in announces the
highest level of alert after the country surpasses 340 cases of COVID-19, the
majority of which were discovered in the past few days. This empowers the
government to take measures such as restricting public transportation and
banning visitors from certain countries. Cases of COVID-19 in Italy continue to
rise in what has become the largest outbreak outside of Asia. Neighbouring
countries close their borders with Iran, fearing a spread of the outbreak.
24 February 2020 — WHO urges focus on containment while doing
everything possible to prepare for a potential pandemic. Case numbers in China
are falling, according to the team of external experts on a mission in China over
the previous two weeks, from an average of 2,500 cases two weeks ago to 400
cases today. But they warned against complacency. They encouraged the world to
prioritise studies that can stop the outbreak faster and can reduce morbidity
and mortality. Currently only one drug, remdesivir, seems to be showing real
efficacy against the disease. The host of COVID-19 remains unclear, say the
National Health Commission Expert Team for the epidemic response in China. But
according to currently available data, bats may be the host and pangolins
intermediate hosts of the virus. Some evidence also points to virus
transmission through oral-fecal route and aerosol transmission, but this needs
further confirmation. It’s also still unclear whether asymptomatic carriers of
the virus can spread the disease. The case fatality rate in China is between 3%
and 4%, but less than 1% in cities and provinces outside Wuhan.
New
Zealand Government extend the travel ban for China for a further eight days.
26 February 2020 — Cases of the virus have now been confirmed on
every continent except Antarctica. For the first time since the outbreak began, there are more new cases
reported outside China, 459, than in China, 412. The European Commission requests member states
to review pandemic preparedness plans, and inform the commission of how they
plan to implement them.
Diamond
Princess
Australian passengers were evacuated from Japan, some repatriated to their home
state to quarantine and others quarantined in a facility near Darwin for 14
days.
27 February 2020 — The number of infections globally continues to
grow. There are 3,474 cases of COVID-19 including 54 deaths outside of China in
44 countries. WHO state that we are at a decisive point and urges countries to
move swiftly and aggressively to contain the virus.
Australian
Government activate the Australian Health Sector Emergency Response Plan for
Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) prompted by the rapid spread outside China.
28 February 2020 — WHO raises the global risk of spread of COVID-19
from “high” to “very high.”
“This is a reality check
for every government on the planet. Wake up. Get ready. This virus may be on
its way, and you need to be ready,” says Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director
of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme. In recent days, 24 new cases
originating from Italy have been reported in 14 countries, and 97 cases
originating in Iran have been reported in 11 countries. More than 20 vaccines
are in development globally, and several therapeutics are in clinical trials,
with results from those trials expected in a few weeks. WHO officials say it is
not yet time to declare a pandemic, adding that once one is declared, efforts
will move away from containment to mitigation. There are 36,117 people in China
that have recovered from the disease, according to WHO. Thirty-eight countries reported to WHO that they have
instituted travel restrictions, including travel bans of visitors from China or
other countries reporting transmission of COVID-19, quarantine of foreigners,
self-isolation of returning citizens and visa restrictions. There have been no
trade restrictions. Panic buying takes hold all across the globe with severe
shortages of essential items including toilet paper, flour, canned goods and
cleaning supplies.
New
Zealand report their first COVID-19 case a New Zealand citizen who had returned
from Iran. The Government extended the travel restrictions to include
travellers coming from Iran.
A new case
in Australia in a passenger returning from Iran.
29 February 2020 — WHO continues to advise
against travel or trade restrictions, it notes that in certain circumstances
countries can use travel restrictions temporarily, such as in settings with few
international connections and limited response capacities. It says that
countries can only justify significant travel restrictions at the beginning of
an outbreak to give a country time to implement preparedness measures for an
outbreak. WHO also says that temperature screening alone at airports and
borders is not an effective way to stop international spread because people may
be in an incubation period and not showing symptoms or be using antipyretics to
reduce fever. WHO also recommends that countries intensify surveillance for
"unusual outbreaks of influenza-like illness and severe pneumonia and
monitor carefully the evolution of COVID-19 outbreaks, reinforcing
epidemiological surveillance."
Australian
Government extend the enforced quarantine to passengers returning from Iran,
requiring them to spend 14 days in a third country before being allowed into Australia.
Total cases globally as of 29
February 2020: 85,403 and 2924 deaths.
Total cases in Australia: 24
Total cases in New Zealand: 1
(figures from WHO)
Sources:
https://shorthand.radionz.co.nz/coronavirus-timeline/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_Australia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_New_Zealand
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_Australia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_New_Zealand
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