covid-19 pandemic in mainland china covid-19 pandemic in mainland china the covid-19 pandemic in mainland china is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) 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. covid-19 pandemic in mainland chinarolling average of confirmed covid-19 cases per day in mainland chinadiseasecovid-19virus strainsars-cov-2locationmainland chinafirst outbreakwuhan, hubeiindex case1 december 2019(3 years, 5 months, 1 week and 5 days ago)confirmed cases99,252,425503,302 (symptomatic)suspected cases‡1.1 billion+ (ccdc estimate in january 2022)recovered379,053deaths121,015vaccinations1,310,292,000 (total vaccinated)1,276,760,000 (fully vaccinated)3,491,077,000 (doses administered)‡suspected cases have not been confirmed by laboratory tests as being due to this strain, although some other strains may have been ruled out. history of the people'srepublic of china (prc) 1949–1976 mao era revolution proclamation korean war land reform movement zhen fan three-anti and five-anti sufan hundred flowers anti-rightist two bombs, one satellite great leap forward(great chinese famine) seven thousand cadres conference socialist education movement cultural revolution restoring legitimate seat in the un 1972 visit by richard nixon to china 1976–1989 transition and deng era arrest of the gang of four boluan fanzheng 1978 truth criterion controversy a letter to taiwanese compatriots reforms and opening-up establishment of china-us relations (three communiques) four modernizations sino-vietnamese war beijing spring strike hard anti-crime campaign sino-british joint declaration anti-spiritual pollution campaign anti-bourgeois liberalization campaign 863 program 1986 chinese student demonstrations sino-portuguese joint declaration revolutions of 1989 tiananmen square protests 1989–2002 jiang and the third generation deng xiaoping's southern tour one country, two systems hong kongmacau 1998 china floods persecution of falun gong china western development bidding beijing 2008 joining wto 2002–2012 hu and the fourth generation 2002–2004 sars outbreak shenzhou 5 south–north water transfer project qinghai-tibet railway sichuan earthquake beijing olympics shanghai 2010 expo three gorges dam chinese high-speed railway 2012–present xi and the fifth generation anti-corruption campaign belt and road initiative chang'e 3 xinjiang internment camps uyghur genocide china–united states trade war chinese space station 2019–20 hong kong protests covid-19 pandemic hong kong national security law 2020–2021 reform spree beijing 2022 winter olympic games history of china prc constitution beijing shanghai generations of leadership 1. mao 2. deng 3. jiang 4. hu 5. xi culture economy education geography politics china portal the 2019–2020 covid-19 outbreak in mainland china was the first wave of the disease, and was first manifested as a cluster of mysterious pneumonia cases, mostly related to the huanan seafood market, in wuhan, the capital of hubei province. it was first reported to the local government on 27 december 2019 and published on 31 december. on 8 january 2020, a new coronavirus (sars-cov-2) was identified as the cause of the pneumonia by chinese scientists. by 29 january, the virus was found to have spread to all provinces of mainland china. by late february, the pandemic had been brought under control in most chinese provinces. on 25 february, the reported number of newly confirmed cases outside mainland china exceeded those reported from within for the first time. by mid-2020, widespread community transmission in china had been ended, and restrictions were significantly eased. until late 2022, the chinese government response included a zero-covid strategy, which aims to eliminate transmission of the virus within the country and allow resumption of normal economic and social activity, making it one of few countries to pursue this approach. by late 2020, china's economy continued to broaden recovery from the recession during the pandemic, with stable job creation and record international trade growth, although retail consumption was still slower than predicted. infection rates increased in 2022, and on 3 april of that year, china reported 13,146 new cases of covid-19 in the past 24 hours, which was the highest single-day total of new cases since the height of the 2020 outbreak. following nationwide protests in november and december of that year, the chinese government relaxed many of its previous restrictions, effectively ending the zero-covid policy and leading to a massive surge in cases. the number of deaths during the surge have been estimated at between 600,000 and 2.3m, way above the 87,468 recorded deaths since the start of the pandemic. graphics context