In December 2019, an outbreak of pneumonia of unknown origin developed in Wuhan of Hubei Province, China.

By January 7, 2020, Chinese scientists confirmed that the outbreak was caused by a novel coronavirus, initially referred to as the 2019-nCoV, and recently renamed as severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), and the disease is now termed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) by the WHO.

As of February 20, 2020, more than 75,748 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported in 28 countries (including China) and international conveyance (cruise ship in the Japanese territorial waters), with approximately 99% of cases occurring in mainland China.

The WHO declared a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) on January 30, 2020 in response to the rapid growth of the outbreak and reports of human-to-human transmission in several countries.

Here, we summarise how key events unfolded, review the current understanding of COVID-19, contrast the outbreak of COVID-19 with the experience with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), and discuss how anaesthetists should prepare themselves in view of this outbreak.