A study conducted by China’s public health department suggests that the Wuhan neo-crown outbreak earlier this year may be nearly 10 times the size of the publicly available data.
About 4.4 percent were tested for antibodies to the new crown virus, indicating they had been infected at some time in the past, according to an April serological survey of more than 34,000 people by the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The data were released Monday evening.
The percentage suggests that as many as 500,000 of Wuhan’s 11 million residents may have been infected, nearly 10 times the 50,000 confirmed cases of neo-crown announced by health authorities in mid-April.
China has come under international criticism for the way it initially handled the new crown outbreak. The United States has questioned China’s release of data on Wuhan infections. Revisions to the case and death data have added to suspicions that China falsified the data.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization is leading two international investigations to study the initial stages of the outbreak in China. Ten international scientists involved in studying the origins of the new coronavirus are expected to travel to China in a few weeks to try to discover how the virus spreads from animals to humans. The research includes interviewing early patients and reconnoitering the Wuhan South China Wholesale Seafood Market for clues. The international investigation team has been asked to review the findings of their Chinese counterparts in hopes of boosting international confidence in the investigation.
So far, little of China’s own survey data has been made public. The extent of China’s openness to the international investigation team is also unclear.
Meanwhile, at the request of the WHO, an independent team assessing the worldwide handling of the new crown outbreak is preparing an outbreak timeline to figure out what actions to take in the days and weeks when the outbreak first began.
Beijing has pledged to support the WHO investigation into the source of the virus, but Chinese officials continue to emphasize to domestic and foreign audiences that the investigation may find that the virus came from outside China.
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