Scroll left and right to see how the 2019 novel coronavirus spread.

Scroll left and right to see how the 2019 novel coronavirus spread.

Early December 2019:

The first cases of the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) were reported to health authorities in Wuhan, in central China's Hubei province.

December 31, 2019

Wuhan health officials issued an alert of a new virus. China also alerted the World Health Organization.

January 1, 2020

Officials shut down Wuhan's Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where they suspected the cases spread, though it may not have originated there.

January 7, 2020

Chinese authorities identified the virus, temporarily named 2019-nCoV or the 2019 novel coronavirus.

January 11, 2020

The first death was reported from 2019-nCoV. He was a 61-year-old man who died on January 9 in Wuhan after he was hospitalized with "severe pneumonia".

January 13, 2020

A 61-year-old Chinese woman from Wuhan traveled to Thailand as a tourist. She was detected using thermal surveillance at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok.

January 20, 2020

China's National Health Commission confirmed that the 2019 novel coronavirus has been passed through human-to-human transmission.

January 21, 2020

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control confirmed the first American novel coronavirus case in Everett, Washington, in a man who had traveled from Wuhan.

January 23, 2020

Officials put Wuhan on lockdown to curb the spread of the virus. Buses and subways stopped running.

The World Health Organization also concluded it was too early to label 2019-nCoV a public health emergency of international concern or PHEIC. 

January 24, 2020

A second U.S. case is identified in Chicago in a 60-year-old woman who had traveled to Wuhan and back.

January 25, 2020

Canada reported its first case in a 50-year old man who returned from Wuhan to Toronto. 

In Wuhan, 62 year-old physician Liang Wudong died. He had been treating coronavirus patients.

January 26, 2020

Three more cases are identified in the United States, two in California, and one in Arizona. All three had recently traveled to Wuhan. 

Chinese researchers published data in the British medical journal, The Lancet, showing 13 of the 41 patients in the initial Wuhan cluster had no identifiable link to the seafood market suspected of being the outbreak's epicenter.

January 27, 2020

Three suspected coronavirus cases in Mexico tested negative.

A second coronavirus case is identified in Canada. She is in her 50s and is the wife of the man who was diagnosed with the first coronavirus case in Canada.

January 28, 2020

Canadian officials reported a third person tested positive for 2019-nCoV. The man in his 40s traveled to Wuhan and returned to British Columbia.

January 29, 2020

China now has cases in almost every province and administrative region:

• 5,997 confirmed
• 132 deaths
• 9,239 suspected cases

January 30, 2020

The World Health Organization has declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) over the 2019 novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV. But it said that it has confidence in China's handling of the outbreak.

A sixth case of the 2019 novel coronavirus was confirmed in Chicago, in a man who got the virus from his wife. It’s the 1st case of human-to-human transmission in the U.S.

January 31, 2020

The White House determined that the coronavirus outbreak is a public health emergency. Any U.S. citizen that traveled to Hubei in the past two weeks will face a 14-day quarantine. Foreign nationals entering the U.S. who traveled to western China will be denied entry.

January 31, 2020

A 7th case of the coronavirus was confirmed in Santa Clara County, in northern California. The man recently returned from Wuhan but did not need hospitalization, officials said.

Feb. 1, 2020

A student in her 20s tested positive for the coronavirus in Toronto, making her the fourth case in Canada. A man in his 20s also tested positive in Boston in the eighth case in the United States. Both had traveled to Wuhan.

Feb. 2, 2020

Three more coronavirus cases were confirmed in California. One case in the Bay Area, and two in San Benito County, south of San Jose.

A man in the Philippines died of the coronavirus, in the first death from 2019-nCoV outside of China. He was 44 years old.

Feb. 7, 2020

Doctor Li Wenliang, one of the first Chinese doctors to warn people about the coronavirus outbreak, died of the disease at age 34.

The U.S. government announced it’s prepared to spend up to $100 million to aid China and other nations fighting the coronavirus.  The U.S. also helped transport 17.8 tons of privately donated medical supplies to China.

Two separate cruise ships were quarantined out of coronavirus fears. More than 3,700 people were kept on a ship in Japan after 61 people were diagnosed with the coronavirus. Another ship was docked in New Jersey after  4 passengers were rushed to the hospital out of caution.

There are 31,530 total confirmed cases of the  coronavirus. Of that total, 31,213 were in China, and 317 are in the rest of the world.

Feb. 10, 2020

The World Health Organization names the new coronavirus: COVID-19. The WHO said the name omits references to people, places, or animals associated with the disease, to avoid stigma.

Feb. 11, 2020

The CDC disclosed a 13th American infected with the coronavirus. The patient was evacuated from Wuhan and put in quarantine in San Diego. A test mistakenly said the patient wasn’t infected. After finding the error, the patient was moved from quarantine to isolation at hospital.

Feb. 13, 2020

An evacuee from China who had been under quarantine at a U.S. Air Force base in Texas has been diagnosed with COVID-19. The patient is in stable condition in isolation. The 14th case in the U.S. was another evacuee at a base near San Diego.

Feb. 17, 2020

340 U.S. passengers evacuated from the quarantined cruise ship Diamond Princess arrived at two military bases in California and Texas. 14 tested positive for  COVID-19 but had no symptoms. All evacuees now face  another period of quarantine.