In December 2019, the World Health Organisation (WHO) was officially informed of a cluster of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China. Subsequently researchers from the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center & School of Public Health reported that the evidence suggested an origin in a seafood market in Wuhan, and the isolation of a new type of coronavirus (novel coronavirus, nCoV) on 7 January 2020. Laboratory testing ruled out other respiratory pathogens including Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV). On 10th January 2020 a preliminary sequence (WH-Human_1.fasta.gz) of the novel coronavirus was made available on virological.org, and subsequently on 12 th January 2020, was released on Genbank (ID MN908947). Preliminary analysis of the Wuhan virus suggests it is most closely related to coronaviruses found in bats.