A week after officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) called the spread of the coronavirus “inevitable” in the United States, six people in the country have died, all in the Seattle area. 

With Wuhan, China, on lockdown, Pastor Mark Song has spent most of the last month pastoring his church and serving the city from his apartment. 

Every morning he livestreams prayer meetings for the 140 members of his church, prepares his Sunday sermons (also livestreamed), video chats with church members to see how they’re faring, writes online essays, and helps arrange aid to the sick.

On Tuesday, Spencer Fehrenbacher received a knock on his door at Travis Air Force Base near Fairfield, Calif. He’s been under quarantine there after evacuating from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, docked in Yokohama, Japan. 

At the door were two Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials with his printed test results for the novel coronavirus. “You’re either Santa Claus or the angel of death, and I’m really hoping you’re Santa Claus,” Fehrenbacher joked with the officials. His test results came back negative.

On Jan. 20, Zhang Ruzhen traveled from her home in Wuhan to Chengdu to celebrate Chinese New Year with her son, Xue Ximing, and his family. She soon developed a cough and low-grade fever, so the family brought her to the local hospital. By Jan. 23, doctors discovered she had contracted the novel coronavirus and quarantined her and Xue’s family.

Front-line protester Lucas Yu knew after storming Hong Kong’s Legislative Council building on July 1 that he would need to flee his home of Hong Kong. Police had rounded him up at a previous protest, and he knew they would be hunting down protesters who had broken into and briefly occupied the government building. So, heeding advice shared online, Yu boarded a flight to Taiwan, which protesters view as a haven.

Hong Kong authorities barred Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), from entering the territory last week. He had come to Hong Kong to launch the group’s latest annual report on human rights around the world with a special focus on China.

“I had hoped to spotlight Beijing’s deepening assault on international efforts to uphold human rights,” Kenneth Roth said in a statement. “The refusal to let me enter Hong Kong vividly illustrates the problem.”

At the beginning of 2019, I listed seven China-related stories worth following throughout the year. Some became big headlines—the Uighur detentions, the U.S.-China trade war, and Chinese influence overseas. Others are perennial issues, such as Taiwan’s relationship with China and China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Still others represented the trend of greater control in the country, such as the government crackdown on Christians and forced disappearances.