Zhang's team's success in discovering and publishing the virus's genome allowed scientists to quickly design COVID-19 tests, fight the pandemic, and begin developing COVID-19 vaccines.

[3] The day after the genome was released, Zhang's lab at the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center was closed[9] after a visit by officials, who issued a "rectification" order.

[3] Zhang was named one of Nature's 10: "ten people who helped shape science in 2020",[3] and was winner of the 2020 ICG-15 GigaScience Prize for Outstanding Data Sharing during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

[13] Zhang is a professor at Fudan University in Shanghai[14][15] and works at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

[3] In 2019, Zhang was given preliminary approval for funding from the Ministry of Science and Technology of China to run a national survey and database of pathogenic viruses, though as of 2020 the project was delayed by red tape.

On that day Zhang uploaded the genome to the United States National Center for Biotechnology Information and notified the Shanghai municipal health authority.

Zhang also contacted Wuhan Central Hospital and the Chinese Ministry of Health, arguing that the virus was similar to SARS and that it spread by respiratory transmission.