Official timeline
Dec 8, 2019 – Earliest date that China has acknowledged an an infection
Dec 31 – China first reported ‘pneumonia of unknown trigger’ to the World Well being Organisation
Jan 1, 2020 – Wuhan seafood market closed for disinfection
Jan 7 – President Xi Jinping discusses coronavirus outbreak along with his politburo
Jan 9 – China makes public the genome of the coronavirus
Jan 11 – China reported its first dying
Jan 13 – First case exterior China is confirmed
Jan 20 – China’s Nationwide Well being Fee confirms human-to-human transmission
Jan 23 – Wuhan locked down
Jan 31 – WHO declared ‘outbreak of worldwide concern’ as China admitted having hundreds of instances
Feb 23 – Italy reviews cluster of instances in first main outbreak within the West
Could 29 – China claims virus didn’t originate in moist markets however in Chinese language bats earlier than it jumped to people by way of an ‘middleman animal’
July 31 – Chinese language researcher admits some coronavirus experiments carried out in decrease biosafety labs
Dec 16 – WHO declares it can journey to Wuhan to probe origins of virus in January
Jan 5, 2021 – China denies entry to WHO’s investigatory crew
Feb 9 – WHO dismisses principle virus leaked from lab – backs China’s declare it was imported from frozen meat
Mar 28 – Former US nationwide safety officers says intel reveals ‘there was a direct order from Beijing to destroy all viral samples’ at Wuhan lab
New proof
2012: Six miners struck down with with a mysterious flu-like sickness in Mojiang collapse Yunnan.
They have been discovered to have been contaminated with the closest identified relative to Covid, sharing 97% of its genes.
Samples RATG13 are despatched to the Wuhan Institute of Virology to be studied.
Sep 2019– Blood samples are taken in a lung most cancers screening trial in Italy which later check optimistic for coronavirus
Oct – Whistleblower Wei Jingsheng claims China intentionally unfold Covid at The World Navy Video games in Wuhan in October, two months earlier than the remainder of the world knew in regards to the virus
Oct – Xi Jinping’s authoritarian regime tried desperately to close down whistle-blowers like Mr Jingsheng. Any references made in social media a few new SARS virus or ‘outbreak’ have been censored
Oct-Dec – Rise in ‘flu and pneumonia’ instances in northern Italy which might be linked to coronavirus
Nov – Whistleblower Mr Jingsheng claims he took his issues in regards to the navy video games to senior figures throughout the Trump administration however was ignored
Nov – Intelligence report handed to businesses in Washington claims three members of workers on the Wuhan Institute of Virology sought hospital remedy in November 2019 after experiencing signs according to Covid
Nov – Sewage samples taken in Florianópolis, Brazil, recommend virus was current
Nov 10 – Milanese girl has a pores and skin biopsy, producing a pattern which later reveals indicators of the virus
Nov 17 – Leaked paperwork recommend case detected in China on this date
Dec – Medical doctors in China, together with Li Wenliang, report existance of recent kind of respiratory an infection. However Chinese language police arrested him and eight of his colleagues for questioning – as an alternative of publicising reviews and warning public
Dec 1 – Chinese language researchers report an an infection on this date in a peer-reviewed examine, but it surely has not been acknowledged by Beijing
Dec 18 – Sewage samples taken in Milan and Turin recommend virus was circulating within the cities
Dec 26 – Samples analysed recommended a brand new kind of SARS was circulating as early as December 26, however Wuhan was not locked down till January 22
Jan 2020 – Sewage samples from Barcelona recommend virus was within the metropolis
Jan 3 – Covid-19 infections start sweeping throughout different nations together with the U.S. because the WHO labelled the outbreak a Public Well being Emergency of Worldwide Concern
Could – Scientists at a authorities lab in California concluded that Covid-19 might have escaped from a facility in Wuhan
July – WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated China failed share important uncooked knowledge throughout their investigation in Wuhan. China rebuffed these claims
June 2021: Main US virus knowledgeable Dr Anthony Fauci was warned Covid might have been engineered in a lab, emails publicly launched reveal.
August: The world’s first Covid-19 affected person might have been contaminated by a bat whereas working for a Wuhan lab in China, WHO chief Dr Peter Embarek stated
August: A damning report by Republicans within the US claims coronavirus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, shortly after the ability tried to enhance air security and waste remedy techniques
The report additionally cited ‘ample proof’ that lab scientists have been working to switch coronaviruses to contaminate people and such manipulation might be hidden.
October: US intelligence evaluate into origins of pandemic doesn’t attain a judgement on whether or not the virus emerged by way of animal-to-human transmission or a lab leak.
Chinese language officers branded the report ‘political and false’.
January 2022: Leaked emails from high UK scientist Sir Jeremy Farrar confirmed he admitted in February 2020 that it was a ‘seemingly rationalization’ that the virus might be man-made. However he went on to model the idea a ‘conspiracy’.
February: Sir Farrar is named to be interviewed underneath oath on the US Congress. Officers need him to clarify why he shifted away from the lab leak principle.