A 55 year-old from Hubei province could have been the first person to have contracted COVID-19 on November 17, 2019 according to government data seen by the South China Morning Post. [1, 2]
“Interviews with whistle-blowers from the medical community suggest Chinese doctors only realised they were dealing with a new disease in late December.”
By December 20, 2019 the total number of confirmed cases had reached 60. “On December 27, Zhang Jixian, a doctor from Hubei Provincial Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, told China’s health authorities that the disease was caused by a new coronavirus. By that date, more than 180 people had been infected, though doctors might not have been aware of all of them at the time.”