Four years ago, on November 17, 2019, the first patients with Covid-19 were reported in Wuhan, in China’s Hubei province. Temporary facilities like this one, pictured on March 10, 2020, were set up to look after the sick. The following day, the World Health Organisation declared a pandemic. After the first cases here in late February, the government introduced measures leading to a four-tier alert system. On March 26, a two-month nationwide lockdown began. Auckland would endure two more lockdowns, then the whole country again in August 2021 with the arrival of the Delta variant.

Debate has raged in scientific and political circles about the precise source of the outbreak in Wuhan. Fingers were quickly pointed at a “zoonotic” transfer at the Huanan animal and seafood market. The other main theory was a lab leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. It is unlikely the source will ever be determined.

More than 3500 Kiwis, and about 7 million people globally, have died from the virus.