On February 26, 2020, at 22:10, sourced from Caixin.
The isolation, detection, and genetic sequencing of the novel coronavirus are fundamental to understanding and assessing the transmissibility and harmfulness of the COVID-19 pandemic. When and how did this research begin? On January 11, after several days of no updates, the Wuhan Health Commission reported for the first time that "viral pneumonia of unknown cause" was renamed "pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus infection," stating that as of 24:00 on January 10, 2020, there were 41 preliminary diagnosed cases of COVID-19.
[Caixin] (Reporters Gao Yu, Peng Yanfeng, Yang Rui, Feng Yu, Ding Ma Danmeng) Tracing back, as of February 24, more than 2,660 deaths and over 77,000 confirmed infections have been caused by the novel coronavirus, which is similar to SARS. When was this novel coronavirus discovered? Caixin reporters, through multiple interviews and by reviewing relevant papers and database materials, gradually pieced together the information.
Various pieces of evidence indicate that before the end of December last year, samples from no fewer than nine cases of unknown pneumonia were collected from various hospitals in Wuhan. Genetic sequencing showed that the pathogen was a SARS-like coronavirus, and these test results were successively reported back to hospitals and submitted to the Health Commission and the disease control system. Until January 9, CCTV reported that the "Expert Group for the Preliminary Assessment of the Pathogen of Wuhan Viral Pneumonia" officially announced that the pathogen was a "novel coronavirus."
The first case had results as early as December 27. On December 15, 2019, a 65-year-old male delivery worker from the South China Seafood Market began to have a fever. On December 18, he went to the emergency department of Wuhan Central Hospital (Nanjing Road campus) for treatment, where doctors suspected it might be community-acquired pneumonia and admitted him to the emergency department ward. Community-acquired pneumonia is a general term for pneumonia caused by various microorganisms, including bacteria, viruses, chlamydia, and mycoplasma, with main clinical symptoms including cough, with or without sputum, and chest pain.
On December 22, the patient's condition worsened, and he entered the ICU, where various antibiotics were ineffective. Professor Zhao Su, chief physician of the respiratory department at Wuhan Central Hospital, told Caixin reporters that on December 24, a deputy chief physician in the respiratory department performed a bronchoscopy on this patient and then sent the patient's bronchoalveolar lavage fluid sample to a third-party testing agency, Guangzhou MicroGenomics Technology Co., Ltd., for NGS testing, hoping to identify the pathogen using its metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) technology. Bronchoalveolar lavage is a treatment method that clears inflammatory secretions from the alveoli and improves respiratory function, and the pathogen content in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid is higher than that in throat swabs for lower respiratory tract and lung diseases.
MicroGenomics, officially known as Guangzhou MicroGenomics Technology Co., Ltd., was established in June 2018. Its recruitment advertisements claim to focus on precision medicine in oncology and infectious pathogenology, with a sequencing platform based on next-generation sequencing technology (NGS).
"Since BGI started with sequencing technology, many gene sequencing companies have emerged in China. Over the years, we have seen the introduction of next-generation sequencing technology at various medical seminars, and these companies have sent medical representatives to major hospitals to promote it," Zhao Su told Caixin reporters. BGI (300676.SZ), officially known as Shenzhen BGI Gene Co., Ltd., was originally named Beijing BGI Research Center and was established in 1999, completing several internationally advanced genomic research projects, including the Chinese portion of the International Human Genome Project, rice, and giant panda genome projects. In July 2017, it went public as the "first stock of gene sequencing" on the Growth Enterprise Market and is the largest genomics research and development institution globally.
Another doctor from Wuhan Union Hospital also mentioned, "One test costs 3,000 yuan for 6 million base sequences, and this 3,000 yuan can determine what virus or bacteria the pathogen is, which could save lives."
Generally, gene sequencing companies should provide feedback on test results three days later, which would be December 27, but MicroGenomics did not provide a written report. "They just called us to say it was a new coronavirus," Zhao Su said. By this time, the patient had already been transferred to Wuhan Tongji Hospital on December 25.
On February 21, 2020, the genetic testing information for this case was disclosed in an article by the WeChat public account "MicroGenomics." The article stated that the Chinese Medical Journal (English version) published a paper on January 27, introducing the discovery of the novel coronavirus, and MicroGenomics participated in the early detection work of the novel coronavirus.
The aforementioned paper published in the Chinese Medical Journal (English version) refers to the article "Identification of a Novel Coronavirus That Can Cause Severe Pneumonia in Humans: A Descriptive Study," published on January 29. The authors of the paper come from the Pathogen Biology Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences/Peking Union Medical College (hereinafter referred to as the Pathogen Institute of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences), the China-Japan Friendship Hospital, the Hubei Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital, Wuhan Central Hospital, Guangzhou MicroGenomics Technology Co., Ltd., and other institutions. The chief technology officer of MicroGenomics, Xu Teng, is a co-first author of the paper, while CEO Li Yongjun and COO Wang Xiaorui are named authors. Li Yongjun previously served as a bioinformatics analyst at the Pathogen Institute of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.
According to the paper, researchers collected clinical data and bronchoalveolar lavage samples from five severe pneumonia patients at Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan and conducted pathogen metagenomic (mNGS) analysis. The results revealed a previously unreported coronavirus with a nucleotide sequence similarity of 79% to the SARS virus in these samples. The paper indicates that among the samples from these five patients, the earliest clinical sample for genetic sequencing was collected on December 24 from a 65-year-old patient. He fell ill on December 15, with symptoms of high fever, cough, and little sputum. He was hospitalized on the 18th and admitted to the ICU on December 22. Sixteen days later, he still had a persistent high fever and developed severe shortness of breath.
Similarly corroborating information was found in an article titled "Documenting the Experience of the First Discovery of the Novel Coronavirus," published by the WeChat public account "Little Mountain Dog" on January 28. The author claimed in the comments section to work for a private company in Huangpu, Guangzhou, and recorded: "On December 26, I just started work and, as usual, browsed through the day's mNGS pathogen microbiology automatic interpretation results. Unexpectedly, I found that one sample reported a sensitive pathogen—SARS coronavirus, with dozens of sequences, and this sample had only one meaningful pathogen. My heart tightened, and I quickly checked the detailed analysis data in the background, finding that the similarity was not very high, only about 94.5%. To confirm the reliability of the results, I began a detailed analysis. The exploratory analysis suggested that this pathogen was most similar to Bat SARS-like coronavirus, with an overall similarity of about 87%, while the similarity to SARS was about 81%."
According to the author, the sample from this patient was also collected on December 24. The article mentioned, "The front-end feedback indicated that this patient was in critical condition and urgently needed test results, but such a significant pathogen could not be reported lightly. We held an emergency meeting with several leaders at noon and decided to continue in-depth analysis, delaying the release of the report while sharing data with the Pathogen Institute of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences for joint analysis." The Pathogen Institute of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, mentioned earlier as one of the authors of the paper in the Chinese Medical Journal (English version), is where MicroGenomics CEO Li Yongjun previously worked, and its direct superior is Wang Chen, an academician and vice president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
On December 27, the laboratory assembled a nearly complete viral genome sequence, and the data was also shared with the Pathogen Institute of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. "It can be basically confirmed that this patient's sample indeed contains a novel virus similar to Bat SARS-like coronavirus," the article stated. "At that time, the information received was that this patient had returned to his hometown and could have been in contact with bats. Realizing the potential seriousness of the issue, the laboratory conducted a thorough cleaning and disinfection, rendered the samples harmless, and monitored the personnel involved in the experimental operations. By noon, we had already communicated with the doctors, and the patient was isolated."
"It should be that we were the first to discover this novel coronavirus." The article from "Little Mountain Dog" also provided a screenshot from the GISAID database, stating, "From the data submitted on the GISAID database website, the earliest sample collection time is also ours."
GISAID is a global platform for sharing influenza virus data, where researchers can upload the viral gene sequences they extract after registering. Each strain has a unique number, and information such as collection time, submission date, and submitting laboratory is also recorded. Caixin reporters verified that according to the sample collection time, the earliest genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus on GISAID was collected on December 24, 2019, and uploaded by the Pathogen Institute of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences on January 11. By comparing numbers, names, etc., it can be seen that this is the sample sequence marked in the screenshot from the "Little Mountain Dog" article, which their company participated in testing.
The article also mentioned that on December 27 and 28, the company's leadership communicated with the hospital and disease control departments by phone, and on the 29th and 30th, even personally went to Wuhan to report and communicate all analysis results to the leaders of the hospital and disease control center, "including all our analysis results and the analysis results from the Pathogen Institute of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Everything was under intense, confidential, and strict investigation (by this time, the hospital and disease control personnel had already known about several similar patients, and after we communicated the test results, they had already begun emergency handling)."
The known earliest sample owner who completed genetic sequencing later died at Jinyintan Hospital. The research results that detected the new virus as early as December 27 did not play any role at that time.
"SARS coronavirus" ignited social media. In fact, in addition to this known earliest case, at the end of December 2019, there were two other cases of "viral pneumonia of unknown cause" sent from Wuhan Central Hospital to different institutions for genetic sequencing. The test results of these two cases had a significant impact on the public disclosure of this epidemic through different paths.
On December 27, a 41-year-old man surnamed Chen visited Wuhan Central Hospital's Nanjing Road campus. "He was an accountant, lived in Wuchang, and had never been to the Huanan Seafood Market in Hankou. He began to have a fever around December 16 without any obvious cause, with a maximum temperature of 39.5°C, accompanied by palpitations, chest tightness, and difficulty breathing after activity, with significant physical decline. He first sought treatment at the First People's Hospital of Jiangxia District on December 22 but showed no improvement," Zhao Su revealed to Caixin reporters. "He was an acquaintance of a doctor at our hospital and was transferred to us on the 27th, also admitted to the emergency department." On the evening of December 27, the patient underwent bronchoscopy sampling in the ICU of the respiratory department, and this sample was sent to another NGS testing agency, Beijing Boao Medical Laboratory Co., Ltd.
On December 30, Beijing Boao Medical Laboratory provided the doctor with the test report for this patient, and the test result directly indicated "SARS coronavirus."
The test report from Beijing Boao Medical Laboratory obtained by Caixin reporters showed that high-confidence positive indicators for SARS coronavirus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were detected in the patient's sample. The explanation for SARS coronavirus was: a single-stranded positive-sense RNA virus that spreads through close-range droplets or contact with the patient's respiratory secretions, which can cause a highly infectious pneumonia that can accumulate multiple organ systems, also known as atypical pneumonia.
"They didn't have a complete gene bank, and they might not have done a recheck, so they made a small mistake. In fact, it's not SARS; it's a novel coronavirus," a gene sequencing expert revealed to Caixin reporters.
However, this small error in the test report directly caught the attention of Wuhan doctors, sounding the alarm to the public through social media, which saved many lives to a certain extent.
On December 30, the test report from Beijing Boao Medical Laboratory appeared in the WeChat of doctors at Wuhan Central Hospital. That evening at 17:48, ophthalmologist Li Wenliang from Wuhan Central Hospital posted in a classmate group: "Seven cases of SARS have been confirmed at the Huanan Fruit and Seafood Market, isolated in our hospital's emergency department"; at 19:39, neurologist Liu Wen from Wuhan Red Cross Hospital posted in the work WeChat group "Union Red Cross Neurology" stating: "Just now, the Second Hospital (Wuhan Central Hospital) confirmed a case of coronavirus pneumonia, and maybe the surrounding areas of Huanan will be isolated. SARS has basically been confirmed; nurses, please don't go out"; at 20:48, oncologist Xie Linka from Wuhan Union Hospital posted in the oncology center WeChat group, saying, "Please do not go to the Huanan Seafood Market recently; many people there are suffering from pneumonia of unknown cause (similar to atypical pneumonia). Today, our hospital has admitted multiple pneumonia patients from the Huanan Seafood Market; everyone should pay attention to wearing masks and ventilation"—these three doctors were later reprimanded by the police.
On the same day, the author of the article "Little Mountain Dog," far away in Huangpu, Guangzhou, also learned of the above news and recorded: "By December 30, I heard that there were quite a few patients with similar symptoms, and my nerves tightened again. Especially, around the afternoon of the 30th, a competitor might have also detected the same virus in another patient's sample, but they directly issued a report detecting SARS coronavirus, instantly igniting the news... The competitor shared the sequence with us for analysis, and upon analysis, it was indeed the same virus! My subconscious first thought was 'this virus is infectious!'"
The revelations by Li Wenliang and others intersected the story of gene sequencing companies with the story of clinical doctors sounding the alarm. While doctors at Wuhan Central Hospital were seeking answers through gene sequencing companies for the viral pneumonia patients who were unresponsive to routine treatment, Zhang Jixian, the head of the respiratory and critical care medicine department at Hubei Xinhua Hospital, which is adjacent to the Huanan Seafood Market, continuously treated four cases of unknown pneumonia on December 26. On December 27, Zhang Jixian reported the discovery of four cases of "viral pneumonia of unknown cause" to the hospital, which was reported to the Jianghan District Disease Control Center.
On December 28-29, Xinhua Hospital admitted three more patients from the Huanan Seafood Market, all exhibiting similar viral pneumonia symptoms. According to later reports from the Wuhan Evening News and others, at 1 PM on December 29, Xinhua Hospital's vice president Xia Wenguang convened ten experts to discuss these seven cases, and the experts unanimously agreed that the situation was unusual. Xia Wenguang directly reported to the health and disease control departments at both the provincial and municipal levels. The public health department of Wuhan Central Hospital also reported on the same day. In the afternoon, the Hubei Provincial and Wuhan Municipal Health Commissions notified the provincial, municipal, and district-level disease control centers that Xinhua Hospital and the Huanan Seafood Market had admitted multiple cases of pneumonia with exposure history to the seafood market, requiring the initiation of emergency response procedures. The Hubei Provincial Disease Control Center, Wuhan Municipal Disease Control Center, and the disease control centers of Jianghan District, Qiaokou District, and Dongxihu District began epidemiological investigations. Huang Chaolin, the deputy director of the business department of Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital, and others went to Xinhua Hospital to take away six patients, and Wuhan Tongji Hospital also transferred the aforementioned first patient who underwent genetic testing at Wuhan Central Hospital to Jinyintan Hospital.
On December 30, the three-level disease control center formed an "Investigation and Handling Report on the Situation of Hospitals Reporting Multiple Cases of Pneumonia Associated with the Huanan Seafood Market." On the same day, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission issued an internal notice mentioning that multiple medical institutions in Wuhan had indeed reported multiple cases of pneumonia of unknown cause, which were associated with the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, requiring all medical institutions to report any similar cases they had treated in the past week.
This emergency notice from the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, triggered by Zhang Jixian's insistence on reporting, quickly leaked online, along with the WeChat alerts from doctors like Li Wenliang who had seen the gene sequencing report, marking the first transmission of information about the outbreak that originated in Wuhan to the outside world.
Warnings from Shanghai. Another case sample from Wuhan Central Hospital came from the Hoh Lake campus, which is also adjacent to the Huanan Seafood Market, and was collected a day earlier. The patient, also surnamed Chen, was a 41-year-old individual from Quanzhou, Fujian, who developed a high fever of 40°C, body aches, cough with purulent sputum, and shortness of breath after feeling cold on December 20. He was hospitalized on December 26 at Wuhan Central Hospital's Hoh Lake campus for "fever investigation and lung infection," and on December 30, the hospital performed bronchoscopy sampling on him, preserving a portion of the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid sample in a refrigerator at -80°C.
"The reason for preserving an extra sample is that we have been collaborating with the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center (affiliated with Fudan University) and the Wuhan Disease Control Center on a national major science and technology project called 'Resources of Major Natural Epidemic Viruses in China' for five years. The Wuhan Disease Control Center is responsible for collecting clinical samples and environmental specimens in the Central China region and regularly sends them to the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center for pathogen testing. They have a biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) laboratory and a high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatics analysis platform, while our hospital is a sentinel hospital for the Wuhan Disease Control Center," Professor Zhao Su from Wuhan Central Hospital explained.
On the afternoon of December 30, a chief physician from the Wuhan Disease Control Center took the sample. On January 2, another researcher from the Wuhan Disease Control Center carefully packaged the sample with dry ice, iron boxes, and foam boxes, along with other animal specimens, and sent it to Shanghai via railway express. On January 3, Professor Zhang Yongzhen's team at the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center received the sample. This center is affiliated with Fudan University, and Zhang Yongzhen himself is a researcher at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Institute, a part-time professor at the Fudan University Biomedical Research Institute and Shanghai Public Health Center, and has been conducting research on zoonotic diseases and resources of major natural epidemic viruses in China under funding from the National Natural Science Foundation, major national projects, and key research and development programs in recent years. Several hospitals, including Wuhan Central Hospital and the Wuhan Disease Control Center, as well as the University of Sydney in Australia, are members of the research team.
In the early hours of January 5, Zhang Yongzhen's research team detected a novel SARS-like coronavirus from the sample and obtained the full genome sequence of the virus through high-throughput sequencing; the phylogenetic tree drawn from the sequencing data also confirmed that the novel coronavirus from Wuhan had never been seen before in history. On the same day, the Shanghai Public Health Center immediately reported to the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission and the National Health Commission, warning them that the new virus was homologous to SARS and should be transmitted via the respiratory tract, recommending that corresponding disease control and prevention measures be taken in public places. On January 6, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention initiated a level two emergency response.
"We have been collaborating with the Wuhan Disease Control Center and Wuhan Central Hospital to collect new natural epidemic viruses, which is part of our national major project, including the use of P3 laboratories, which have been recognized by the China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment," a researcher from the Shanghai Public Health Center told Caixin reporters. "We were conducting routine research and accidentally made a significant discovery, which we immediately reported."
At least nine samples were collected and sent for testing at the end of last year. Caixin reporters confirmed that, almost simultaneously with Guangzhou MicroGenomics Technology Co., Ltd. and Beijing Boao Medical Laboratory, several other gene sequencing companies obtained samples of unknown pneumonia cases from Wuhan hospitals. Among them was BGI, the industry "leader," which received a gene sequencing commission from Wuhan Union Hospital on December 26. On December 29, BGI completed the gene sequencing results for this case sample, showing that the virus had an 80% similarity to the SARS gene sequence, but it was not SARS; it was a previously unknown coronavirus. BGI also used their SARS detection kit to test the case, and the result was negative, ruling out SARS.
On December 30, BGI verbally reported the sequencing results to Wuhan Union Hospital, stating that the pathogen was a new coronavirus similar to SARS and recommended that the hospital report to the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission.
A BGI representative told Caixin reporters that when they accepted the commission to sequence samples of unknown viral pneumonia cases at the end of December, they were unaware that this virus had already caused many infections clinically, and there had even been family cluster infections. "We are a gene sequencing technology company that receives many sequencing commissions daily, encountering a large number of viruses and discovering many new viruses. There are many types of coronaviruses; previously, including SARS, only six coronaviruses were known to infect humans, with only SARS and MERS being highly infectious to humans. At that time, we did not know whether this virus was 'good' or 'bad.'"
BGI has had long-term cooperation with local hospitals in Wuhan. According to Caixin reporters' investigations, local hospitals in Wuhan sent at least over 30 samples of difficult pneumonia cases to BGI for sequencing from December 2019. BGI found three cases of pneumonia infected with the novel coronavirus among them, in addition to the case on December 26, the other two were collected on December 29 and 30.
Relevant information obtained by Caixin reporters showed that on December 30 and 31, BGI conducted high-depth re-testing on the recently received cases. On December 31, they mixed the three SARS-like coronavirus samples, combining three viral gene sequence fragments to form a mixed full gene sequence. On January 1, this mixed novel coronavirus gene sequence was provided to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and three testing reports were also submitted to the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission. On the same day, BGI re-sequenced the entire genome and obtained a full genome sequence that day. On January 3, BGI completed the full sequence sequencing of the viruses in the three samples.
However, BGI did not publicly disclose the novel coronavirus genome sequences of these three samples. Caixin reporters found that as of January 19, 2020, a total of 13 novel coronavirus genome sequences had been uploaded to the GISAID platform. Excluding three from Japan and Thailand, the remaining ten were all uploaded by Chinese research institutions. Based on the sample collection time, the earliest was the aforementioned sample collected on December 24 and uploaded by the Pathogen Institute of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Eight other samples were collected on December 30, including one from Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital and the Hubei Provincial Disease Control Center (one), five from Jinyintan Hospital and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and two from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Institute for Viral Disease Prevention and Control. Additionally, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Institute for Viral Disease Prevention and Control also uploaded a gene sequence from a sample collected on January 1, 2020.
In corroboration, according to reports from the Hubei Daily, on December 30, Zhang Dingyu, the director of Jinyintan Hospital, led the team to collect bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from the seven earliest admitted patients and sent it to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for testing.
Based on the industry average testing cycle of three days, by around January 2, the gene sequencing results for the aforementioned eight samples collected on December 30 should have been obtained. The Wuhan Institute of Virology stated in a public letter titled "Wuhan Institute of Virology Fully Engaged in Research on Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia" that on the evening of December 30, the institute received samples of unknown pneumonia sent from Jinyintan Hospital, and after 72 hours of intensive work, on January 2, 2020, they confirmed the full genome sequence of the novel coronavirus, which was uploaded to GISAID on January 11.
The aforementioned paper published in the Chinese Medical Journal (English version) also indicated that within the nine days from December 24, 2019, to January 1, 2020, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid samples from five patients were collected and sent for testing and analysis, and among these five patients, two had no exposure history to the Huanan Seafood Market.
Among the five patients, in addition to the aforementioned 65-year-old patient, three patients had their samples collected on December 30. Among them, Patient 2 was a 49-year-old female who worked at the Huanan Seafood Market. She began to have a high fever and dry cough on December 22 and was hospitalized five days later due to difficulty breathing, being admitted to the ICU on December 29; Patient 3 was also a female, 52 years old, who fell ill on December 22 and was hospitalized on the 29th, but she had no exposure history to the seafood market; Patient 4 was a 41-year-old male who began to have a high fever and dry cough on December 16 and was hospitalized on the 22nd—this male, who also had no exposure history to the seafood market, was clearly the accountant from Wuchang who visited Wuhan Central Hospital; Patient 5's bronchoalveolar lavage fluid sample was collected on January 1, 2020. He was a 61-year-old male who worked at the Huanan Seafood Market, had chronic liver disease and abdominal mucinous tumors, and was hospitalized after seven days of fever, cough, and difficulty breathing. He began ECMO rescue on January 2 but ultimately died.
The paper states that a novel coronavirus was thus identified in the laboratory, with a nucleotide sequence similarity of 79% to the SARS virus, phylogenetically closest to the SARS-like coronaviruses carried by bats, but forming a separate evolutionary branch of the β coronavirus strain sequence. After conducting virus isolation for morphological confirmation and serological testing, the newly emerging pathogen was ultimately confirmed to be a novel coronavirus. The amino acid sequence of the receptor-binding domain of this virus is similar to that of the SARS coronavirus, indicating that the two viruses may bind to the same receptors on human cells.
Looking back at those critical days from late December 2019 to early January 2020, which should have determined the fate of countless people, the public was still unaware of the consequences this virus would later bring.
A person from a gene sequencing company revealed that on January 1, 2020, he received a call from an official at the Hubei Provincial Health Commission, notifying him that if there were samples of COVID-19 cases in Wuhan, they could no longer be tested; existing case samples must be destroyed, and information about the samples could not be disclosed externally, nor could related papers and data be published. "If you detect anything in the future, you must report it to us."
On January 3, the General Office of the National Health Commission issued a notice titled "Notice on Strengthening the Management of Biological Sample Resources and Related Scientific Research Activities in Major Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Work," which stated that regarding recent pneumonia case samples from Wuhan, based on currently available information on pathogen characteristics, transmissibility, pathogenicity, and clinical data, until the pathogen information is further clarified, it should be managed as a highly pathogenic pathogen (Category II); the transportation of related samples should comply with the original Ministry of Health's regulations on the transportation management of highly pathogenic microorganisms (bacteria or viruses) that can infect humans; pathogen-related experimental activities should be conducted in biosafety laboratories with corresponding protection levels.
The notice further stipulated that relevant institutions should provide biological samples for pathogen detection to designated pathogen testing institutions as required by provincial-level health administrative departments and ensure proper handover procedures; without approval, biological samples and related information should not be provided to other institutions and individuals; institutions and individuals that have obtained relevant case biological samples from medical and health institutions should immediately destroy the samples on-site or send them to designated preservation institutions for storage, and properly keep records of related experimental activities and experimental results; during the epidemic prevention and control work, information generated by various institutions undertaking pathogen detection tasks is considered special public resources, and no institution or individual may arbitrarily publish information related to pathogen detection or experimental activity results, and related papers and results must be reviewed and approved by the commissioning department.
As for which institutions are "designated pathogen testing institutions," the document did not specify. Some virologists revealed that even the Wuhan Institute of Virology was once required to stop pathogen testing and destroy existing samples, "because according to the current Infectious Disease Prevention Law, conducting laboratory testing, diagnosis, and pathogen identification for infectious diseases is the legal responsibility of disease prevention and control institutions at all levels, and only national and provincial disease control system institutions have the authority to conduct infectious disease pathogen identification, while the Wuhan Institute of Virology clearly does not fall within this category, let alone those unauthorized commercial research institutions."
Perhaps because of this, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which received the virus samples on December 30, conducted virus isolation on January 1, completed the virus's gene sequencing on January 2, isolated the virus strain on January 5, and completed the entry and standardized preservation of the national virus resource bank on January 9. These research tasks, which clearly required day and night efforts, were not publicly disclosed for a long time, and only when faced with external rumors and attacks in February did they provide brief disclosures.
On January 9, CCTV reported that the "Expert Group for the Preliminary Assessment of the Pathogen of Wuhan Viral Pneumonia," led by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, confirmed that the pathogen was a novel coronavirus. "As of 21:00 on January 7, 2020, the laboratory detected a novel coronavirus and obtained the full genome sequence of the virus. A total of 15 positive results for the novel coronavirus were detected using nucleic acid testing methods, and the virus was isolated from one positive patient sample, showing typical coronavirus morphology under electron microscopy."
On January 11, Zhang Yongzhen's research team shared the viral genome sequence information on the "Virology Organization" Virologic.org website and GenBank, making them the first team in the world to publish the sequence of this virus.
That evening, the National Health Commission announced that China would share the novel coronavirus genome sequence information with the World Health Organization. The next day, five more virus genome sequences from different patients were released by a group led by the National Health Commission in the global influenza virus database GISAID. Regarding which institution the shared novel coronavirus genome sequence information came from, Gao Fu, director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, responded to Caixin reporters that the gene sequences came from three institutions: the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, as part of a joint effort. The World Health Organization stated that it had received more detailed information from the Chinese National Health Commission regarding the unknown cause of viral pneumonia in Wuhan, including the novel coronavirus genome sequence information detected from cases, which is of great significance for other countries to develop specific diagnostic tools.
At this point, it is unnecessary to delve into who first picked the pearl from the scientific crown, as it had already been 15 days since the first genetic sequencing confirmed the novel coronavirus.
On January 11, after several days of no updates, the Wuhan Health Commission reported for the first time that "viral pneumonia of unknown cause" was renamed "pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus infection," stating that as of 24:00 on January 10, 2020, there were 41 preliminary diagnosed cases of COVID-19. On the same day, the Hubei "Two Sessions" were held. By the end of the Hubei "Two Sessions" on January 17, this number had not increased.
Caixin reporters Zhao Jinchao and intern reporter Huang Yuxin also contributed to this article.
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For more reports, see: [Special Topic] Complete Record of COVID-19 Prevention and Control (Real-time updates) Hospital collection, gene sequencing shows the pathogen is a SARS-like coronavirus, and these test results were successively reported back to hospitals and submitted to the Health Commission and the disease control system. Photo/Caixin reporter Cai Yingli
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