However, instead of raising the alarm, they chose to bully doctors into keeping quiet, the health care professional, who was at the centre of the desperate fight to contain the outbreak, added. COVID-19 was first identified in the city of Wuhan on December 31, 2019 – although it was not officially named until weeks later.

The World Health Organization issued a press release on January 5, but there was huge reluctance when it came to confirming it was capable of human-to-human transmission.

The doctor, speaking to the BBC for a new documentary on condition of anonymity, said: “It was out of control, we started to panic.

“Everyone knew it was human-to-human transmission, even a fool would know.

“So why say there was none? This made us very confused and very angry.”

The film’s title, 54 Days, refers to the time period between the first known case and the Wuhan lockdown.

The doctor said by January 10, the respiratory department of the hospital where he worked had been full – yet officials had been more interested in keeping the situation quiet, refusing to allow him and his colleagues to speak to anyone, or to wear facemarks.

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Giving Mr Gao the benefit of the doubt, Mr Lipkin said he was likely incompetent rather than driven by malice.

He said: “I don’t think he was duplicitous. I think he was just wrong.

“He should have released some sequences and said this is what we know.”

The documentary also features leaked audio during which WHO officials discussing the similarities with the Sars outbreak and seeking frequent updates from China.

Speaking during one meeting in January, WHO’s emergencies head Michael Ryan said: “To say there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission is not good enough.

“We need to see the data, we need to be able to determine for ourselves the geographic distribution, the timeline, all of that.”

The WHO, and China’s National Health Commission, did not confirm person-to-person transmission until January 20, three weeks after the first official case – with evidence that it had been in circulation for some months prior to that.

Johns Hopkins’ Coronavirus Resource Center currently puts the total number of cases worldwide at 99,786,313, with a worldwide death toll of 2,142,224.

The total number of cases in China stands at 99,402 – a figure which has not risen greatly since the first few months of 2020.

Hong Kong today announced the residents of 12 buildings were being put into lockdown after a cluster of cases.