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Covid-19: Five days that shaped the outbreak



A year ago, the Chinese government locked down the city of Wuhan. For weeks beforehand officials had maintained that the outbreak was under control - just a few
dozen cases linked to a live animal market. But in fact the virus had been spreading throughout the city and around China.

This is the story of five critical days early in the outbreak.

By 30 December, several people had been admitted to hospitals in the central city of Wuhan, having fallen ill with high fever and pneumonia. The first known case was
a man in his 70s who had fallen ill on 1 December. Many of those were connected to a sprawling live animal market, Huanan Seafood Market, and doctors had begun
to suspect this wasn't regular pneumonia.

Samples from infected lungs had been sent to genetic sequencing companies to identify the cause of the disease, and preliminary results had indicated a novel
coronavirus similar to Sars. The local health authorities and the country's Center for Disease Control (CDC) had already been notified, but nothing had been said to
the public.

Although no-one knew it at the time, between 2,300 and 4,000 people were by now likely infected, according to a recent model by MOBS Lab at Northeastern University
in Boston. Cases the outbreak was also thought to be doubling in size every few days. Epidemiologists say that at this early part of an outbreak, each day and even each
hour is critical.

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