Textiles and Dress

2019–2020 COVID-19 outbreak in mainland China

The 2019–2020 COVID-19 outbreak in mainland China was the first COVID-19 outbreak in that country, and the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). China was the first country to experience an outbreak of the disease, the first to impose drastic measures in response (including lockdowns and face mask mandates), and one of the first countries to bring the outbreak under control. The outbreak was first manifested as a cluster of mysterious pneumonia cases, mostly related to the Huanan Seafood Market, in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province. On 8 January 2020, a new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) was identified as the cause of the pneumonia by Chinese scientists. During the beginning of the pandemic, the Chinese government showed a pattern of secrecy and top-down control. It censored discussions about the outbreak since the beginning of its spread, from as early as 1 January, worked to censor and counter reporting and criticism about the crisis – which included the detention of several citizen journalists – and portray the official response to the outbreak in a positive light, and restricted and facilitated investigations probing the origins of COVID-19. Several commentators suspected the Chinese government had deliberately under-reported the extent of infections and deaths. However, some academic studies have found no evidence that China manipulates COVID-19 data. The local governments of Wuhan and Hubei were widely criticized for their delayed responses to the virus and their censorship of the related information during the initial outbreak, especially during the local parliamentary sessions. This allowed early spread of the virus, as a large number of Chinese people returned home for the Chinese New Year vacation from and through Wuhan, a major transportation hub. However, stringent measures such as lockdown of Wuhan and the wider Hubei province and face mask mandates were introduced around 23 January, which significantly lowered and delayed the epidemic peak according to epidemiology modelling. Yet, by 29 January, the virus was found to have spread to all provinces of mainland China. By the same date, all provinces had launched high-level public health emergency responses. Many inter-province bus services and railway services were suspended.

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See also

• ▸Himation
• ▸Khirbet Qeiyafa
• ▸Ku Klux Klan

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Text from Wikipedia; plate via Wikimedia Commons. Text CC BY-SA 4.0; plate freely licensed (see Commons). Source record. Images and catalogue data are reproduced from open-access collections.