| Year(s) | Event |
|---|
| 2002 November 16 | First known case in Guangdong, China |
| 2003 February 11 | China reports that there have been 300 cases including 4 deaths |
| 2003 March 5 | Sui-chu Kwan, a 78-year-old woman from Hong Kong, dies in Toronto |
| 2003 March 11 | Hong Kong reports an outbreak |
| 2003 March 13 | Kwan's son Chi Kwai Tse, 44, also dies. |
| 2003 March 15 | WHO declares SARS a "Worldwide Health Threat" |
| 2003 March 18 | German scientists find a paramyxovirus in one SARS patient. |
| 2003 March 19 | Cases reported in the US, UK, Spain, Germany and Slovenia |
| 2003 March 20 | Hong Kong epidemiologists trace five cases to the Metropole Hotel (although there is no documented contact between the cases) |
| 2003 March 20 | Canadian scientists find metapneumovirus in six of eight Canadian cases. |
| 2003 March 23 | Joseph DeRisi tells CDC that a novel coronavirus is the cause of SARS |
| 2003 March 24 | Singapore confines hundreds of people who might have been exposed to their homes. |
| 2003 March 25 | Ontario Health Minister Tony Clement gives health care workers legal powers to track and control exposed people. |
| 2003 March 25 | Scarborough's Grace Hospital, in the Toronto area, closes. |
| 2003 March 27 | Hong Kong quarantines more than 1,000 people. |
| 2003 March 27 | WHO recommends airline passenger screening for flights leaving from Toronto, Hong Kong, Singapore, Hanoi, Taiwan and Guangdong. |
| 2003 March 29 | Carlo Urbani, the WHO official who identified SARS, dies |
| 2003 April 1 | A plane is quarantined in San Jose after the pilot diagnoses four people with SARS, a diagnosis that turns out to be incorrect. |
| 2003 April 4 | US President signs executive order making SARS a quarantinable disease |
| 2003 April 5 | China apologizes for its slow response |
| 2003 April 12 | Canadian death toll reaches 13. |
| 2003 April 14 | Canadian scientists claim to have sequenced the genome of the virus responsible for SARS |
| 2003 April 16 | WHO scientists announce that monkeys innoculated with a new coronavirus came down with SARS-like symptoms. No proof that this was purified virus was provided. |
| 2003 April 23 | WHO warns against travel to Toronto |
| 2003 April 25 | Canadian death toll reaches 19. |
| 2003 April 25 | Health officials in Vancouver say SARS may never be fully contained and Canadians may just have to live with it |
| 2003 May 3 | 200 new cases announced in Beijing. |
| 2003 May 4 | One million children will stay home from school for another two weeks in Beijing. |
| 2003 May 5 | 10,000 people quarantined in Nanjing |
| 2003 May 6 | Nanjing authorities quarantine 10,000 people. |
| 2003 May 15 | China threatens to execute or jail for life anyone who breaks SARS quarantine orders |
| 2003 May 15 | Scientists announce in the journal Nature that a coronavirus is the proven cause of SARS |
| 2003 May 22 | Peak of the epidemic with 65 new cases in Taiwan in one day. |
| 2003 May 24 | Over 500 people are quarantined in Toronto due to about 25 new cases. |
| 2003 May 26 | 2,200 people are quarantined throughout Ontario, mainly in Toronto. |
| 2003 June 2 | Canadian total is now 32. |
| 2003 July 2 | Toronto is declared SARS free after 20 days without a new case. |
| 2003 July 21 | Scientists announce that a Coronavirus is the cause of SARS. |
| 2003 August 13 | The 44th Canadian death from SARS is Toronto doctor Nestor Yanga. |
| 2003 September 9 | Singapore announces a new case, the first in five months. |
| 2003 October 4 | Taiwan cuts SARS death toll in half, worldwide total now believed to be 774 deaths |
| 2003 November 13 | It is announced that SARS screening at airports in Canada failed to turn up a single case. |
| 2003 December 17 | Taiwan announces a new case, in a medical researcher. |
| 2004 January 5 | China confirms a case in Guangdong and plans to slaughter thousands of civet cats. |
| 2004 January 5 | Another case of SARS in Guangdong. |
| 2004 April 7 | A suspected case of SARS in a Beijing nurse results in 171 people being monitored for symptoms. |
| 2004 April 26 | China announces another four cases connected to a patient who worked at a SARS laboratory. |
| 2004 April 29 | There are now 9 confirmed or suspect cases related to Beijing's Institute of Virology |