Timeline of China's Covid-19 outbreak

The earliest-known cases of Covid-19 start showing symptoms on Dec 8.

Wuhan health authorities confirm they are battling an unknown virus and disclose that dozens working at a seafood wholesale market in the city are ill. The Huanan seafood wholesale market in Wuhan is ordered to close as scientists investigate.

China reports its first known Covid-19 death.

The authorities order an overnight lockdown in Wuhan.

As the number of cases surges in China, reaching the thousands, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declares a "public health emergency of international concern".

The novel coronavirus is named Covid-19, an abbreviation for coronavirus disease 2019.

As cases continue to mount globally, China starts to close its borders.

After 76 days, the lockdown in Wuhan is lifted.

After nearly two months of no new local infections, a new cluster shows up in a wholesale market in Beijing.

President Xi Jinping hails China's success in fighting Covid-19.

In an elaborate ceremony at the Great Hall of the People, Mr Xi hands out awards to those who played an important role in fighting the pandemic, including China's top respiratory diseases expert Zhong Nanshan and vaccine researcher Chen Wei.

China begins rolling out a mass vaccination programme.

Researchers picked by the WHO visit Wuhan for an investigation into the origins of the virus.

The WHO study is released. It is inconclusive on where the virus originated from.

Sinopharm's vaccine is added to the WHO's vaccine emergency use list, paving the way for it to be recognised internationally. The Sinovac vaccine follows shortly thereafter.

After a worker at Nanjing airport is infected with the more infectious Delta variant, cases spread to at least 14 provinces and regions during the summer holiday season, triggering a series of domestic travel restrictions.

China says it has vaccinated more than a billion people. To date, 2.6 billion doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have been dispensed.

China reports its first case of the Omicron variant in Tianjin, an hour's drive from Beijing.