Thanks for this @patriamreminisci, it's a great summary of the development of events. The issue, of course, started much earlier and many outside of China, particularly Hong Kong knew about it, and were very worried about it becoming SARS2.0. Those who know China well enough, and there is probably no one better than Hong Kong, know how things work in China, and how information is disseminated. The fact that confirmed cases jumps more than 10 fold within a week just shows that they are probably playing catch up in releasing the data till it gets to the current figures.

Also, expect to see an increase in cases from Hong Kong. They have just announced all High Speed rail from China will stop in two days time. Beggars belief why they need to wait two days to protect themselves.