The Chinese authorities identified a “new type of coronavirus, which was isolated on January 7, 2020“, and officially determied it to be the causal agent of the viral pneumonia outbreak. In their Situation Report 1 the WHO stated the genome was released to the public on January 12, 2020.
Reported by China on January 3, 2020 under the direction of the National Health Commission (NHC), China CDC and three other institutions [unnamed] they began parallel laboratory testing of the samples in order to identify the pathogen. [1]
China’s CDC report that on “January 3, 2020, the sequence of novel β-genus coronaviruses (2019-nCoV) was determined from specimens collected from patients in Wuhan by scientists of the National Institute of Viral Disease Control and Prevention (IVDC), and three distinct strains have been established.”
On January 7, 2020, this novel coronavirus was confirmed to be the pathogenic cause of this viral pneumonia of unknown etiology (VPUE) cluster, and the disease has been designated novel coronavirus-infected pneumonia (NCIP).