COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei

The COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei was the first identified outbreak of the COVID-19 virus. It emerged as a cluster of mysterious pneumonia cases in Wuhan, the provincial capital of Hubei, China. A Wuhan hospital initially notified the local Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC) on December 27, 2019. By December 31, Wuhan CCDC confirmed a cluster of unknown pneumonia cases linked to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market after unverified documents appeared on the Internet. The outbreak got nationwide attention, with the National Health Commission (NHC) in Beijing sending medical experts to Wuhan the next day. On January 8, 2020, a new coronavirus was identified as the cause of the pneumonia. The sequence of the virus was published on an open-access database. The measures taken by the Chinese government have been controversial. They were praised by the World Health Organization (WHO) for improvements over their response to SARS-CoV-2. However, many in the international community criticized them for being deceptive, slow to publicly disclose key facts about the outbreak, and for aggressively censoring information related to the outbreak and public discontent from citizens online.

The delayed and controversial response by authorities in Wuhan and Hubei failed to contain the outbreak in the early stages, leading to criticism from the public and the media. By January 29, the virus had spread to all provinces of mainland China. In response, all provinces of China initiated their highest response level for public health emergencies. On January 31, the WHO declared the outbreak a "public health emergency of international concern." By February 8, over 724 had died from the coronavirus infection-associated pneumonia, and 34,878 were confirmed to be infected. In Hubei alone, there were 24,953 cases of infection and 699 COVID-19–related deaths.

The General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping, warned about a "grave situation" facing China. The Politburo of the Communist Party of China formed a special leading group for epidemic control led by Premier Li Keqiang. The Chinese New Year celebrations planned for January 25 through February 4 were cancelled, and those traveling for the event were checked for their temperatures as travel restrictions went into effect. Commands for Epidemic Control (CEC) were created in several regions including Wuhan and Hubei. Many inter-province bus services and railway services were suspended. By January 29, all Hubei cities were quarantined. Curfew laws were implemented in Huanggang and Wenzhou, and in several other mainland cities. The region also saw a huge shortage of face masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) despite being the world's biggest manufacturing hub for those products.

As reported cases increased and the virus spread internationally, instances of conspiracy theories, discrimination, and xenophobic violence both regionally in China and abroad exploded in frequency, despite many international governments unilaterally condemning the actions. Rumours fueled by lack of government transparency and fear of the public health crisis circulated across Chinese social media, which were countered by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in an attempt to restore the Chinese people's faith in government leaders.