The fifth anniversary of the first known Covid-19 death passed unnoticed in China on Saturday, with no official commemoration in a country where the pandemic remains a taboo subject.
On 11 January 2020, health authorities in Wuhan, central China, announced that a 61-year-old man had died of pneumonia complications caused by an unknown virus.
This announcement came after authorities reported dozens of infections over several weeks by the pathogen later named SARS-CoV-2, which was identified as the cause of Covid-19.
The revelation triggered a global pandemic, which has since killed over seven million people and profoundly altered lifestyles worldwide, including in China.
On Saturday, Beijing’s tightly controlled state media made no official commemoration.
The ruling Communist Party has stifled public debate and avoided reflection on the strict measures it abandoned late in 2022.
On social media, many users appeared unaware of the anniversary. A few videos on Douyin (China’s version of TikTok) mentioned the date but reiterated the official account of events.
On the popular Weibo platform, users around the former account of whistleblower Dr Li Wenliang did not directly reference the anniversary.
"Dr Li, another year has passed," read a comment on Saturday. "Time flies so fast."
Online commemorations were also sparse in Hong Kong, where Beijing has largely silenced opposition voices since imposing a sweeping national security law in 2020.
Unlike other countries, China has not erected significant memorials for those who lost their lives during the pandemic.
Little information has been released about the first Covid-19 victim. In the days following the man’s death, other countries reported their first cases of the disease, showing that official efforts to contain its spread had failed.
China has faced criticism from Western governments for allegedly covering up the early transmission of the virus and erasing evidence of its origins, although Beijing has insisted it acted decisively and transparently.
According to the World Health Organization, China has officially reported nearly 100 million Covid cases and 122,000 deaths to date, although the true number may never be known.
