For 16 years Shi Zhengli has prepared to fight the deadliest panedmic the world has seen for a generation.
The virologist, from Wuhan in China, is the 'Bat Woman' scientists who discovered the coronavirus gene sequence within days of the first reported case of the outbreak.
But she was then 'muzzled' from revealing the truth about her incredible discovery in the fight against Covid-19, fuelling fears of a cover up by the Chinese authorities.
Zhengli is one of the world's top researchers on coronaviruses and has discovered dozens of deadly SARS-like viruses in bat caves.
She studied samples taken from some of the first people to become infected with the new and then-mysterious respiratory illness in China in December and found it was similar to SARS.
It was identified as a novel coronavirus and within three days she completed its gene sequencing, finding that it was 96 per cent identical to a virus found in horseshoe bats in Yunnan, a process which can take months if not years.
The claims are the latest to emerge after a cover-up by Chinese authorities who failed to share information or issue warnings early on and, ultimately, contain a virus that emerged in Wuhan and then spread around the world, leading to tens of thousands of deaths and more than a million confirmed infections.
Chinese journalist Gao Yu said he spoke to Shi during his incarceration in Wuhan, which was locked down for more than two months, and she told him her findings were hushed up, the Mail on Sunday reported.
The journalist added: "We learned later her institute finished gene-sequencing and related tests as early as January 2 but was muzzled."
The information about gene sequencing wasn't made public until a week later.
It is now being used around the globe in a race against time to find a cure and vaccine for the deadly bug, which has already infected more than 1.8million people around the world and caused 113,000 deaths.
For Zhengli the disocvery of the coronavirus gene sequence is the culmination of more than 16 years work, which has made her one of the world's leading scientists in her field.
But when the virologist received the fateful call on December 30 last year, just after the first patient samples had arrived at the lab in Wuhan, she admits she knew she would be about the battle her "worst nightmare".
And Zhengli had one overriding fear - had the new virus been accidentally unleashed by the lab she worked in.
In the 16 years she had been working with bats, Zhengli had found the subtropical areas of China posed the biggest risk for the coronavirus being transmitted from animals to human - not the centre of the country where Wuhan is located.
She said: "I had never expected this kind of thing to happen in Wuhan, in central China. I remember thinking 'could they have come from our lab?'"
Zhengli was at a conference outside Wuhan when she received the terrifying phonecall that would change the course of the world.
Two hospital patients had an unusual type of pneumonia and the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention needed Zhengli's expertise amid fears this new strain of the virus could be a deadly risk to public health.
Her director told her to "drop whatever you are doing and deal with it now" and she was immediately on a train back to the lab in Wuhan.
Zhengli and her team worked round the clock to find the genetic code of this new strain of coronavirus as the Covid-19 spread around the world like wildfire.
But it was a moment she had spent her entire career working towards - starting with her first virus expedition back in 2004.
Zhengli travelled to bat colonies located in caves near Nanning, which she described as "spellbinding".
But the work was hard, with long hikes and risky decents into caves to find the creatures - and could often be frustrating.
She was part of the team who were searching for the source of the SARS epidemic after a team from Hong Kong had reported that civets, which are similar to mongoose, had been the source of the virus and they were found in the subtropical parts of Asia and Africa.
Before SARS the world had been blissfully unaware of the devastating impact of the coronavirus family but the epidemic led to a global push to both learn more and work to prevent a pandemic - and Zhengli was part of that early team.
And the one thing that seemed to be key in the outbreak of a coronavirus was that they had started in bats before spreading to other animals and then humans.
For months, work on the epedition was relentless with the team waking at dusk to work ovrnight when the bats had left the caves to hunt for food.
They would collect blood, saliva and fecal swabs before grabbing a few hours sleep only to return the following morning to collect urine.
For weeks there was no sign of coronavirus in the DNA that had been collected.
Zhengli was heartbroken. She said: "Eight months of hard work seemed to have gone down the drain. We thought coronaviruses probably did not like Chinese bats."
At the end of their patience, the team were about to return home when another lab gave them a diagnostic kit for testing antibodies produced by people with SARS.
Admitting she didn't have high hopes it would work, Zhengli said she had nothing to lose by testing the samples and the results were incredible and was a turning project for the scheme.
Antibodies against SARS were found in three species of horseshoe bats, which meant they were one step closer to finding the genetic code.
After testing a huge number of sites, the team then narrowed their search down to the outskirts of Kunming, the capital of Yunnan and for the next five years they targeted their research on that area.
Horrifyingly, the team discovered hundreds of strains of coronaviruses but thankfully just dozens were similar to SARS, could infect human lungs and were immune to vaccines and cures that had proved successful against other forms of the virus.
And finally, in one cave, the scientists found what seemed to be the epicentre for SARS - but this came with an added risk.
It meant millions of bats were mixing and creating increasing opportunities for the virus to evolve and for new strains to emerge.
They also found that the virus could spread to those who weren't directly handling the animals.
People living in a nearby village had seen bats flying around. Six people had suffered from symptoms similar to SARS.
And this was not the only time Zhengli and her team had found evidence bats were spreading a new strain of the deadly virus.
Six miners had been struck down with an illness similar to SARS and when Zhengli investigated the mineshaft where they were working, they discovered it was covered in a disgusting-smelling fungus.
The mine was closed immediately to prevent a coronavirus outbreak.
Zhengli fears that the more humans move into areas previously havens for wildlife, the greater the risk of unleashing new coronaviruses on the population.
This coupled with the movement of wildlife and livestock around the world, along with increased long-haul travel, creates conditions perfect for the potential spread of a pandemic - something Zhengli has long feared.
A year ago, Zhengli and her team published a study warning of the potential of a bat-borne pandemic. Little did they know just 12 months later their doomsday predictions would come true.
Then, at the turn of the year, everything they had been preparing for for the last 16 years suddenly needed to kick into action.
Amplifying the genetic material of the virus using the polymerase chain reaction technique Zhengli and her team found five of the infected patients had the same genetic sequences found in all coronaviruses.
Zhengli admits she didn't sleep at all during those first few days of frantic testing and a week after the first case had been reported she was certain a new strain of coronavirus has caused the sickness that had killed the patients - and Covid-19 was born.
Chillingly, it also showed there had been just one point where the virus had passed from animals to human and had then spread through human to human contact - until it covered the world.
They also found the virus could have been in existance for months but hadn't started to spread until it reached Wuhan - and its wildlife markets where animals are sold, slaughtered and skinned, as customers browse the stalls.
They sell a range of creatures, such as bats, civets, pangolins, badgers and crocodiles, although Zhengli and her team believe the virus came directly from the bats themselves.
Almost two months after the first cases of the virus emerged in Wuhan, China permanently banned wildlife consumption and trade.
It is estimated this will forced 14million people out of work and cost the Chinese economy about £60billion, however, Zhengli believes the consumption and trade of wildlife is not the whole problem.
Bats are believed to have responsible for six outbreaks of coronaviruses, including the Covid-19 pandemic, but experts insist problems only occur when people come into contact with the creatures themselves.
Life is Wuhan is slowly returning to normal, although China has recorded its highest number of daily new coronavirus cases in almost six weeks, sparking fears of a second wave of Covid-19 after restrictions were eased.
A total of 108 new coronavirus cases were reported in mainland China on Sunday, up from 99 a day earlier and marking the highest number of cases since 143 infections were reported on March 5.
But for two months Zhengli barely left her lab and survived on nothing but instant noodles as she and her team worked to not only identify the virus but come up with the key to a cure.
The found how it gets into human lungs and are now working on drugs that can block it, as well as trying to come up with a vaccine and trial it on people.
Zhengli describes the Wuhan outbreak as a "wake-up call" for the world and work is now taking place around the globe to find a way to prevent another pandemic.
And while she has now quit her life on the frontline of expeditions to find the source of the new strains of the virus, Zhengli has a chilling warning for what's to come.
She said: "What we have uncovered is just the tip of an iceberg. The mission must go on. Bat-borne coronaviruses will cause more outbreaks and we must find them before they find us."
