15 mistakes by public health officials and ordinary people that helped spread the coronavirus around the world

This week the coronavirus started to spread rapidly outside of China, ravaging markets and establishing itself as a global threat.

At the time of writing, more than 83,000 people have been infected in at least 51 countries . At least 2,800 people have died from the illness, mostly in China. Experts say we are on the brink of a pandemic. (For the latest numbers, see Business Insider's live updates here .)

Various companies, governments, and health authorities have put into place sweeping measures to stop the virus spreading, like bans on travel, quarantines, or canceling events.

However such measures rely on strictly following protocols. Whether through complacency, miscommunication, or incompetence, that has not always happened.

Here are a list of times something slipped through the net.

A disclaimer: Much is still unknown about the virus and exactly how it spreads. A single breach could lead to millions of extra infections, or zero. Many scientists think containment even if perfectly executed is ultimately futile .

The outbreak began in December 2019, and at first scientists did not realize what a disaster the new disease would be. During this period, Chinese officials discouraged "rumors" of a new virus, and punished a doctor who tried to spread word of it.

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AP Photo

Source: CNN

The doctor, Li Wenliang, later died fighting the outbreak in Wuhan.

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Associated Press

Chinese social media was filled with outpourings of grief and anger after Li's death, with many posts featuring the hashtag "We want freedom of speech", according to Business Insider's Sinad Baker .

Complacency more broadly was a problem. Officials in Wuhan were slow to realise the severity of the outbreak, which came ahead of a travel rush at Lunar New Year. By the time the city was put on lockdown, many cases had been recorded elsewhere in China.

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Feature China/Barcroft Media via Getty Images

As it became clear how serious the outbreak was, China's central government fired officials in Wuhan and took the unusual step of publicly admitting its mistake.

The admission came from the Politburo Standing Committee, the most powerful body of the Chinese Communist Party, Business Insider's Lauren Frias reported.

In an official record of the meeting, published by Xinhua news agency, the committee said that the epidemic had exposed problems in its emergency management, which it promised to improve.

Source: Business Insider

One of the most visible errors was a massive potluck banquet for more than 10,000 families in Wuhan on January 18, where guests brought food from home and shared it with each other.

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It was by then clear that an outbreak was underway: three days later the entire city would be quarantined.

"Having a big event like this at a time of an epidemic amounts to a lack of basic common sense," said Li Xinzhou, a respiratory specialist in Shanghai, told The Wall Street Journal .

There were mistakes elsewhere. In the UK a math teacher who lived in Wuhan but flew home on January 26. He said he wasnt tested and that officials told him not to worry unless"he got the sniffles."

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Ann Wang/Reuters

David Marland lived just five minutes from a live animal and seafood market in Wuhan which was ground zero for transmission of the virus .

He told Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper that he was concerned about the official advice he was given.

There were problems too as the first US evacuees from Wuhan were flown home. Healthcare workers who met them on January 29 reportedly did so without appropriate protective gear or proper training.

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The claim came from a whistleblower at the Department of Health and Human Services, and was not made public until almost a month later, in an article by The Washington Post .

For more than a week, the worst coronavirus hotspot outside China was a single cruise ship, the Diamond Princess. The entire ship was quarantined, and more and more people on board started to get sick.

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Carl Court/Getty Images

From the beginning of the quarantine, passengers reported a lack of information on the ship as well as concerns that their temperature screenings were not done properly, Business Insider's Morgan McFall-Johnson reported.

At the time of writing, the ship has seen 705 cases of infected passengers, and four deaths.

Crew members finally left the coronavirus-stricken ship on Thursday, February 27 after weeks onboard .

An official at Japans ministry of health later admitted problems with the idea. An independent expert said it was "flawed" and the problems "completely predictable."

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At a press conference on February 24, Yosuke Kita, a senior coordinator at Japan's Ministry of Health, said: "I admit, our isolation policy was not perfect. No place is perfect except in a hospital."

"The whole idea of the cruise ship quarantine was ill-conceived, and the resultant slew of infections it spawned was completely predictable," Dr. Amesh Adalja with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security previously told Business Insider .

Source: Business Insider

Eventually, authorities let people get off the ship. However, at least 23 of them had never been properly tested for the virus prompting an embarrassing apology from Japan.

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Reuters

Japanese health minister Katsunobu Kato apologized after a woman in her 60s tested negative, was allowed to leave, and later turned out to have had the virus.

She had already returned to her home in a suburb outside Tokyo, Japan, according to The Guardian.

The newspaper reported that Kato said that the ministry was trying to reach other passengers for retesting.

"We deeply apologize for the situation caused by our oversight. We will take all necessary measures, like double checks, to prevent a recurrence," he said.

Another error linked to the ship came when the UK flew home its citizens who were aboard. Four people were cleared to fly home even though their tests were still at the lab. They all had the virus.

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The other British evacuees who arrived with the infected passengers expressed their anger that those who tested positive were allowed to fly.

In a WhatsApp message seen by Sky News , one wrote: "They let them fly without the results, so they have put us in a position where we now could have it too."

Testing errors hit the US too. A woman under quarantine in San Diego after arriving from Wuhan was accidentally released despite showing symptoms of the virus.

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The patient was released from the UC San Diego Health center after initial test results found they had not to been infected, Business Insider reported.

But when the patient started showing symptoms and tested positive, they were sent back for observation and isolation.

In an email statement, published by the San Diego Union-Tribune , the university said that even though the infected evacuee was accidentally released, all proper protocols were followed.

"The patient left UC San Diego Health the same way they arrived, with all precautions taken," it said.

Also in the US, a hospital for several days ignored a patient who later turned out to be the first "community spread" case in the nation because she didnt meet their criteria to be tested.

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Noah Berger/AP

Staff members at NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in northern California didn't test the woman because she had not recently travelled to or from China or had contact with any other confirmed cases, according to The Washington Post .

Four days later, after she got worse, they admitted her on February 15.

The hospital since said it was"meticulously tracing" anyone who came into contact with the woman in case they got sick too.

Around the same time, a patient in London broke protocol by turning up the hospital in an Uber on February 13. Two staff members she came in contact with were asked to stay home for 14 days.

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Reuters

While it is unlikely that the Uber driver caught the virus, the woman went against official advice by not calling an ambulance or using a private vehicle to get to the hospital, Business Insider reported.

It soon emerged that some coronavirus test kits didnt work at all. Health officials in Hawaii announced that the CDC had sent them flawed equipment.

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Outside of Hawaii, the CDC admitted on February 12 that some coronavirus test kits sent to laboratories around the country did not work properly, according to the New York Times .

It is unclear how many of these tests were faulty, leading to heightened concerns about the effectiveness of using the tests to track the spread of disease, Business Insider's Rosie Perper reported.

This appears to have been a wider problem, with the CDC admitting that it lost valuable weeks after attempting to devise its own test.

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Reuters

A ProbPublica investigation found that the CDC shunned official World Health Organization test guidelines by trying to create a more complicated test of its own which could also identify similar viruses.

It didn't work as expected.

The lack of reliable tests prevented local officials from taking crucial first step in coping with a possible outbreak, ProPublica.

In South Korea, a controversial church went ahead with a mass wedding ceremony on February 20 despite rising numbers of cases.

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Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images

At the event, 6,000 members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus were asked to "remove face masks while attending prayer sessions", according to Business Insider .

South Korea now has the second-largest number of cases outside of China, many of them linked to the church.

It was already obvious that the virus was a big problem in South Korea.

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Reuters

Health officials on the day of the mass wedding announced that the number of cases in the country had risen to 104 .

Church leaders went ahead, despite the cancellation of other festivals, concerts, and graduation ceremonies in South Korea.

Meanwhile, the spread of the coronavirus in Europe escalated when Italy reported a surge in cases.

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REUTERS/Remo Casilli

The two most infected regions are Lombardy and Veneto in the north of Italy, home to the major cities of Milan and Venice, Business Insider reported.

Italy has recorded the most infections outside of Asia.

Some of the blame has been put on a mistake by a hospital in the Lombardy region, which let the suspected first patient roam its premises for 36 hours.

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Yara Nardi / Reuters

According to a report by Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, the 38-year-old man was admitted to the emergency room in Codogno, Lombardy on February 19 with respiratory problems.

During the 36-hour period in which he was waiting to be seen, the patient made contact with hospital staff and visiting friends and family.

Italy's prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, appeared to admit the fault of the Lombardy hospital Business Insider reported.

He told reporters Monday: "There has been a management of the hospital not entirely proper according to prudent protocols, which are recommended in these cases, and this has certainly contributed to the spread."

15 mistakes by public health officials and ordinary people that helped spread the coronavirus around the world

The outbreak began in December 2019, and at first scientists did not realize what a disaster the new disease would be. During this period, Chinese officials discouraged "rumors" of a new virus, and punished a doctor who tried to spread word of it.

The doctor, Li Wenliang, later died fighting the outbreak in Wuhan.

Complacency more broadly was a problem. Officials in Wuhan were slow to realise the severity of the outbreak, which came ahead of a travel rush at Lunar New Year. By the time the city was put on lockdown, many cases had been recorded elsewhere in China.

One of the most visible errors was a massive potluck banquet for more than 10,000 families in Wuhan on January 18, where guests brought food from home and shared it with each other.

There were mistakes elsewhere. In the UK a math teacher who lived in Wuhan but flew home on January 26. He said he wasnt tested and that officials told him not to worry unless"he got the sniffles."

There were problems too as the first US evacuees from Wuhan were flown home. Healthcare workers who met them on January 29 reportedly did so without appropriate protective gear or proper training.

For more than a week, the worst coronavirus hotspot outside China was a single cruise ship, the Diamond Princess. The entire ship was quarantined, and more and more people on board started to get sick.

An official at Japans ministry of health later admitted problems with the idea. An independent expert said it was "flawed" and the problems "completely predictable."

Eventually, authorities let people get off the ship. However, at least 23 of them had never been properly tested for the virus prompting an embarrassing apology from Japan.

Another error linked to the ship came when the UK flew home its citizens who were aboard. Four people were cleared to fly home even though their tests were still at the lab. They all had the virus.

Testing errors hit the US too. A woman under quarantine in San Diego after arriving from Wuhan was accidentally released despite showing symptoms of the virus.

Also in the US, a hospital for several days ignored a patient who later turned out to be the first "community spread" case in the nation because she didnt meet their criteria to be tested.

Around the same time, a patient in London broke protocol by turning up the hospital in an Uber on February 13. Two staff members she came in contact with were asked to stay home for 14 days.

It soon emerged that some coronavirus test kits didnt work at all. Health officials in Hawaii announced that the CDC had sent them flawed equipment.

This appears to have been a wider problem, with the CDC admitting that it lost valuable weeks after attempting to devise its own test.

In South Korea, a controversial church went ahead with a mass wedding ceremony on February 20 despite rising numbers of cases.

It was already obvious that the virus was a big problem in South Korea.

Meanwhile, the spread of the coronavirus in Europe escalated when Italy reported a surge in cases.

Some of the blame has been put on a mistake by a hospital in the Lombardy region, which let the suspected first patient roam its premises for 36 hours.

Although cases in China have started to slow, more and more countries are reporting their own outbreaks.

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