Last updated 27 April 31 Dec 2019Wuhan Municipal Health Commission China reported a cluster of cases of pneumonia in Wuhan Hubei Province A novel coronavirus was eventually identified 1 January 2020WHO had set up the IMST Incident Management Support Team across the three levels of the organization headquarters regional headquarters and country level putting the organization on an emergency footing for dealing with the outbreak 4 January 2020WHO reported on social media that there was a cluster of pneumonia cases with no deaths in Wuhan Hubei province 5 January 2020WHO published our first Disease Outbreak News on the new virus This is a flagship technical publication to the scientific and public health community as well as global media It contained a risk assessment and advice and reported on what China had told the organization about the status of patients and the public health response on the cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan 10 January 2020WHO issued a comprehensive package of technical guidance online with advice to all countries on how to detect test and manage potential cases based on what was known about the virus at the time This guidance was shared with WHO s regional emergency directors to share with WHO representatives in countries Based on experience with SARS and MERS and known modes of transmission of respiratory viruses infection and prevention control guidance were published to protect health workers recommending droplet and contact precautions when caring for patients and airborne precautions for aerosol generating procedures conducted by health workers 12 January 2020China publicly shared the genetic sequence of COVID 19 13 January 2020 Officials confirm a case of COVID 19 in Thailand the first recorded case outside of China 14 January 2020 WHO s technical lead for the response noted in a press briefing there may have been limited human to human transmission of the coronavirus in the 41 confirmed cases mainly through family members and that there was a risk of a possible wider outbreak The lead also said that human to human transmission would not be surprising given our experience with SARS MERS and other respiratory pathogens 20 21 January 2020WHO experts from its China and Western Pacific regional offices conducted a brief field visit to Wuhan 22 January 2020WHO mission to China issued a statement saying that there was evidence of human to human transmission in Wuhan but more investigation was needed to understand the full extent of transmission 22 23 January 2020The WHO Director General convened an Emergency Committee EC under the International Health Regulations IHR 2005 to assess whether the outbreak constituted a public health emergency of international concern The independent members from around the world could not reach a consensus based on the evidence available at the time They asked to be reconvened within 10 days after receiving more information 28 January 2020A senior WHO delegation led by the Director General travelled to Beijing to meet China s leadership learn more about China s response and to offer any technical assistance While in Beijing Dr Tedros agreed with Chinese government leaders that an international team of leading scientists would travel to China on a mission to better understand the context the overall response and exchange information and experience 30 January 2020 The WHO Director General reconvened the Emergency Committee EC This was earlier than the 10 day period and only two days after the first reports of limited human to human transmission were reported outside China This time the EC reached consensus and advised the Director General that the outbreak constituted a Public Health Emergency of International Concern PHEIC The Director General accepted the recommendation and declared the novel coronavirus outbreak 2019 nCoV a PHEIC This is the 6th time WHO has declared a PHEIC since the International Health Regulations IHR came into force in 2005 WHO s situation report for 30 January reported 7818 total confirmed cases worldwide with the majority of these in China and 82 cases reported in 18 countries outside China WHO gave a risk assessment of very high for China and high at the global level 3 February 2020 WHO releases the international community s Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan to help protect states with weaker health systems 11 12 February 2020 WHO convened a Research and Innovation Forum on COVID 19 attended by more than 400 experts and funders from around the world which included presentations by George Gao Director General of China CDC and Zunyou Wu China CDC s chief epidemiologist 16 24 February 2020The WHO China Joint mission which included experts from Canada Germany Japan Nigeria Republic of Korea Russia Singapore and the US CDC NIH spent time in Beijing and also travelled to Wuhan and two other cities They spoke with health officials scientists and health workers in health facilities maintaining physical distancing The report of the joint mission can be found here https www who int docs default source coronaviruse who china joint mission on covid 19 final report pdf 11 March 2020 Deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction WHO made the assessment that COVID 19 can be characterized as a pandemic 13 March 2020 COVID 19 Solidarity Response Fund launched to receive donations from private individuals corporations and institutions 18 March 2020 WHO and partners launch the Solidarity Trial an international clinical trial that aims to generate robust data from around the world to find the most effective treatments for COVID 19