Zhang Jixian, director of the department of respiratory and critical medicine care at the Hubei Provincial Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, was the first alerted to the novel coronavirus infection after seeing four patients with similar symptoms of pneumonia, which was later identified as novel coronavirus-induced pneumonia in Wuhan. On December 26, 2019, an elderly couple suffering from fever and cough came to the hospital, whose chest CT showed differences from other viral pneumonitis. The CT result of their son was the same although he did not have any symptoms. A merchant working in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where the epidemic started, also had the same pneumonia.

The next day, 54-year-old Zhang shared her finding with the hospital, which was promptly reported to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Wuhan. In the following two days, more patients from the market were admitted in the hospital.