On the morning of January 19, the experts visited hospitals, the Wuhan Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, which was linked to early cases of the novel coronavirus.

After the meetings, the experts were convinced that human-to-human transmissions had occurred, according to the interview published in Global People  on Thursday.

In a closed-door meeting that afternoon with fellow experts, Li said that because hospital staff had been infected, the government should raise the infectious diseases alarm from category B to the highest level A, the level used for plague and cholera.

Meanwhile, Li also suggested that Wuhan should be put under lockdown.

“Many of the infectious patients are still in Wuhan, but as the Lunar New Year is just around the corner, [we will soon] see a sharp increase of the movement of people [if nothing is done], and that may spread the disease to the whole country,” Li was quoted as saying in the meeting.

“Wuhan should do one thing right now: people who are outside should not be allowed to enter, and the people from Wuhan should not be allowed to leave so to contain the epidemic within Wuhan and help avoid a nationwide outbreak,” she said.

In an interview with another magazine, China Health, which is affiliated with the National Health Commission, last Thursday, Li said that after the meeting, health officials immediately relayed the experts’ suggestions to the NHC, and to the State Council, China’s cabinet.

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The team of experts then returned to Beijing in the evening of January 19. At around midnight, Li and Zhong Nanshan met Ma Xiaowei, the minister in charge of the NHC, and together they decided to report the experts’ findings the next morning to Sun Chunlan, the vice-premier in charge of public health.

At 8.30am on January 20, the six experts took part in a cabinet meeting at Zhongnanhai, the Chinese leadership compound, and reported to Sun. After the meeting, the State Council decided to adopt the experts’ suggestions and take prevention measures of category A infectious disease on the novel coronavirus, which was technically classified as a category B disease under Chinese law.

Li Xingwang, a member of the national medical expert team, told China Daily on February 10 that the decision to launch category A prevention and control measures was crucial in China’s battle against Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, as such classification required faster reporting and stronger isolation measures.

It was on the same day that Zhong Nanshan confirmed human-to-human transmission in a press conference broadcast on state television.

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Li Lanjuan, a professor at Zhejiang University’s school of medicine, told China Health  that when she later returned to Hangzhou, she was alarmed to learn that many people had arrived in Zhejiang province from Wuhan, raising fears that these travellers would spur local transmissions in the east China province.

According to Li, she immediately contacted officials in Beijing and urged them to put Wuhan under lockdown.

“The lockdown must occur before January 24, the Lunar New Year Eve [when there would be mass movement of the population], otherwise, the disease will spread to the whole country on a very large scale,” she warned.

At 2am on January 23, the Wuhan government announced it would impose a lockdown of the city from 10am that day.

“Lockdown is a last-resort decision by [the government],” Li said. “The Lunar New Year is approaching and there will be mass movement of people in and out of Wuhan. If there’s no lockdown and more cities fall just like Wuhan, it will have a huge impact on the safety of the people, economic development and social stability.”