In a nutshell, the virus wasn’t sleeping but rather it was spreading, with one person infecting a few others before that one person even realized they had it. Let’s say that one person infected five people, and those five infected five more (pick whatever number like, but if the multiplier is 2 or higher, the virus is spreading pretty efficiently). Now after 2 to 14 days, some of those people infected early on start feeling symptoms, but some don’t and are still infectious. The sick ones may or may not realize what they have, and may or may not see a healthcare provider. Meantime, larger numbers of people are spreading the virus, and at some point it’s 1,000 people infecting 5,000 others (or whatever the multiplier is — we do not know), and then 100,000, potential infections, and suddenly it looks on a chart like the virus has woken up, yes, but it was at work the whole time. Hope that helps!