COVID-19 pandemic in China

The COVID-19 pandemic began in China in late 2019, when cases of an unknown pneumonia were identified in the city of Wuhan, in Hubei province, many of them linked to a seafood market. Chinese scientists identified and shared the genome of a new coronavirus in January 2020, and Wuhan was placed under strict lockdown. The doctor Li Wenliang, who had warned colleagues about the disease, became a symbol after he died of it. China then followed a policy of containing the virus through mass testing, quarantines and travel restrictions, until protests and the spread of more contagious variants led to its abandonment at the end of 2022. The origin of the virus remains a subject of scientific and political debate.

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