On the 1st of January, Chinese experts investigate an outbreak of respiratory illness in the central city of Wuhan. Most of the afflicted had visited a seafood market according to reports. On further investigation, the Chinese officials ruled out common respiratory diseases such as influenza, bird flu and adenovirus as the cause of these cases in Wuhan. On January 9, China’s official Xinhua News Agency said that the preliminary lab tests show the pathogen behind the pneumonia cases is a new type of coronavirus, the same family of viruses behind SARS and MERS, which was later named as CoVID-19. As of 5 February 2020, around 100,000 cases have been confirmed, including in all provinces of China and more than two dozen other countries. There have been 2,470 deaths attributable to the disease, including 26 outside mainland China, surpassing that of the 2003 SARS outbreak.

The problem with coronavirus lies in its virulence and due to its symptoms being similar to those of the common flu. There is also no available cure as of now.

As of 5 March 2020, the total number of cases has neared 30 after an Italian tourist in Jaipur and an Indian employee of Paytm who had travelled to Italy showed symptoms and were tested to be positive. The two have caused the number of cases to go up to 29 with the Paytm offices of Gurgaon and Noida giving leave for 2 days.