On 30 December 2019, the World Health Organisation (WHO) China Country Office was notified about cases of pneumonia of unknown etiology (cause) in Wuhan city, Hubei province. With a new type of coronavirus, COVID-19, identified on 7 January, the speed that the virus then spread to other countries was unprecedented. On 12 March, with 125,260 confirmed cases globally and 416 deaths reported, WHO declared a pandemic.

The ETC is closely monitoring the situation.