This article documents the chronology of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in February 2020, which originated in Wuhan, China in December 2019. Some developments may become known or fully understood only in retrospect. Reporting on this outbreak began in December 2019.
Events, reactions, and measures in mainland China 1 February Import duties and US-specific tariffs were exempted on imported materials donated for epidemic prevention and control, including VAT and sales tax; the duties and tariffs previously levied were to be refunded.
The Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued a notice late in the evening to deploy medical wastewater and urban sewage supervision, regulate emergency medical wastewater treatment, sterilisation and disinfection requirements, in order to prevent the spread of new coronavirus through faeces and sewage, after the faeces of a patient was tested positive for the virus in Shenzhen.
The Department of Civil Affairs of Hubei Province suspends all marriage registrations starting on 3 February 2020.
Huanggang, Hubei implements a much stricter control, allowing only one person from each household every two days to be on the street for purchases, unless for medically related reasons, required for epidemic control, or as shop workers.
Alibaba Group announced free taxi service for health professionals in Wuhan.
Hunan government required companies in the province not to resume business before 24:00 on 9 February; the new semester is not to start earlier than 17 February for primary and secondary schools and kindergartens, and 24 February for post-secondary institutions. Tianjin government issued a notice to postpone business resumption and the start of the new semester.
Huanggang, Hubei converted Dabie Mountain Regional Medical Centre to an emergency treatment hospital, adding 1000 new beds. Huoshenshan Hospital was fully electrified on 23:49.
China Securities Regulatory Commission waived the 2020 annual listing fee that listed companies in Hubei are required to pay to the stock exchange.
China Federation of Radio and Television Associations issued a notice to pause the filming of all films and TV dramas in mainland China during the epidemic.
310 Hubei citizens were repatriated from Thailand, Malaysia, and Japan.
Apple Inc. temporarily closed all Apple Stores in mainland China until 24:00 on 9 February.
China's National Health Commission (NHC) announced new regulations Saturday requiring that all who lose their lives to the coronavirus must be cremated at the nearest facility. "No farewell ceremonies or other funeral activities involving the corpse shall be held," according to the new ruling.
The Badminton World Federation announced it has postponed the 2020 Lingshui China Masters tournament, originally scheduled to be held from 25 February to 1 March.
2 February Wuhan's Epidemic Prevention and Control Headquarters arranged for Jointown Pharmaceutical Group to overtake the warehouse management of Wuhan Red Cross after days of scandals and controversies regarding the Red Cross' incompetence, extreme delays in allocating donation resources, and unexplained apparent misallocation of crucial medical supplies.
On the same day, the Prevention and Control HQ issued a set of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) prescriptions "to help treat the infection". This move follows the 22 January recommendation from the National Health Commission to use TCM to treat the disease.
Wenzhou, Zhejiang announces implementing the same measure as Huanggang, where every household may send one person every two days outside for purchases, from 00:00 on 2 February to 24:00 on 8 February.
Huoshenshan Hospital completed construction in the morning and was transferred to the military, half a day earlier than scheduled.
Hubei allows imported and re-imported masks that are unlisted in China to be sold in the provincial market.
The Ministry of Transport extended the cut-off time for the minibus toll-free period of the 2020 Spring Festival to 24:00 on 8 February 2020.
Meituan starts an initiative to disinfect all shared bikes in eight mainland cities regardless of the brand.
With immediate effect, Wuhan's government announced the quarantining of "all suspected patients and those known to have been in close contact with a confirmed case." It stated "Patients shall cooperate. Whoever refuses to cooperate will be subject to enforcement by the police."
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has asked the European Union to facilitate the sale of medical supplies "through commercial channels". According to a Chinese government statement, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said the European Union will try its best and coordinate all necessary resources to provide assistance to China.
3 February The Chinese New Year holiday period ended after having been extended for a week. Mainland stock exchanges reopened, Shanghai Stock Exchange falling by 7.72% and Shenzhen Stock Exchange by 8.45%, with a total of 3,177 shares triggering the limit down of 10%. The RMB to USD exchange rate fell through 7.00, opening at 6.9249 and closing at 7.0257.
In Wuhan, the People's Liberation Army Ground Force takes over medical supplies delivery. "The Beijing leadership realised that almost all the donation points in Hubei and Wuhan have had delivery problems, that there are some opportunists using this crisis to make money," according to a military source.
4,000 passengers on the World Dream cruise ship were quarantined, after four among them positive to the coronavirus.
4 February The People's Bank of China provided an additional 500 billion yuan (roughly US$71 billion) of liquidity into the country's financial system on Tuesday, following 1.2 trillion yuan (over US$170 billion) the previous day.
Chinese state-backed importers of liquefied natural gas (LNG) are investigating the invocation of force majeure to halt existing LNG contracts, as the coronavirus outbreak depresses energy demand.
5 February The National Health Commission releases the fifth diagnostic criteria. For Hubei, CT scan results are no longer required for declaring suspected cases, and "clinical diagnoses" may now be made using "imaging features of the pneumonia", without nucleic acid testing required. For suspected cases, "respiratory symptoms" are now admitted as part of the criteria nationwide.
Hubei released an additional ¥200 million (US$28.56 million) as special subsidies for the construction of treatment sites.
The first shelter hospital is put into use. Designated hospitals in Wuhan will now accept only serious cases (confirmed or suspected); other existing and future patients would be redirected to shelter hospitals or community quarantine points.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology applied for a patent of Gilead's antiviral drug, remdesivir, as applied toward 2019-nCoV, in China. The granting of a patent by Chinese authorities was not certain, but a patent would provide China with leverage in negotiating license fees with Gilead. The institute said that it made the patent application "out of national interest, and won't exercise its patent rights if foreign pharmaceutical firms work together with China to curb the contagion." Seeking a patent instead of a "compulsory license" option does demonstrate some sensitivity on China's part toward honoring Gilead's intellectual property rights. Gilead is working with China on Phase III clinical trials there.
6 February Dali City apologises for intercepting and requisitioning 300 thousand masks designated as emergency supplies for Chongqing and promises to "return" all of them.
The start of the new semester is postponed to at least the end of February in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Chongqing, and Shanghai.
Sichuan and Guangdong rolled out measures to help small and medium-sized enterprises in response to the epidemic.
Tencent news issued a statement saying screenshots of its Epidemic Tracker circulating on the Internet showing substantially higher numbers are doctored.
China announces that they will halve the tariff on US$75 billion goods imported from America, and Chinese official media Global Times commented that China is considering the use of disaster provision in the US-China Phase One trade deal, which was signed in the previous month.
7 February Li Wenliang dies. Wenliang was a 34-year-old ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital and one of eight doctors who tried to share information about the coronavirus when it was first emerging, only to be reprimanded by Wuhan police. He likely became infected by the coronavirus while treating patients during January. His death from complications of the infection is declared at 2:58 a.m. local time.
On 7 February, the Joint Defence and Control Mechanism of the State Council introduced a scheme of "one province for one city", where 16 provinces would provide medical force support for every city in Hubei except Wuhan.
Hangzhou imposed a temporary ban on retail pharmacies selling fever and cough medicines, asking citizens with the symptoms to see a doctor instead.
8 February
Shenzhen and Shanghai roll out measures to support companies and reduce costs, including measures estimated to reduce ¥30 billion (US$4.3 billion) in Shanghai.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) issued an additional ¥200 million (US$28.66 million) for Hubei to improve the treatment capacity of patients with severe infections.
Leishenshan Hospital begins operation.
The National Health Commission announces the temporary official names and acronyms for the pneumonia in Chinese and English, respectively () / Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia and () / NCP.
10 February Business has now resumed in all 30 mainland province-level divisions, apart from Hubei.
Food prices in China have risen on month of January. According to the consumer price index (CPI) the price of pork rose 8.5%, while the CPI came in at 5.4%. The reason may be due to food hoarding, besides the disruptions of supply chains due to transportation, lockdown measures and holiday demand. The CPI is the highest since October 2011.
Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping has appeared in public wearing a protective mask and his temperature was checked while visiting the Anhuali Community in Chaoyang District of Beijing.
11 February Shenzhen University announced the successful development of a new coronavirus antibody detection kit capable of obtaining a result in 22 minutes and reducing the risk of infection of medical staff.
The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security expanded existing relief measures for micro, small, and medium size enterprises. The NDRC announced its intention to "strictly curb the practice of restricting the resumption of production and production by simple and crude methods such as via approval." The Ministry of Transport (MoT) introduced measures to for the transportation security of both citizens, especially migrant workers, and animal feed. The State Taxation Administration allowed enterprises affected by the epidemic to carry forward losses up to 8 years. The Ministry of Commerce issued a notice to ensure security of living materials in key cities.
Guangdong passed an emergency legislation banning the trading and overeating of wildlife and devolves emergency legislative powers to county-level governments. The provincial government authorised Guangzhou and Shenzhen governments with the power of the emergency requisitioning of houses, facilities, and materials for emergency epidemic response. This was the first time a government was authorised with the power of requisitioning private property since the 1978 reform and opening up and since the passage of Property Law in 2007.