Officials in China reportedly spent a week downplaying the
risks of a possible coronavirus pandemic.
According to AP, documents and interviews with various
officials in the country showed that China detected a likely pandemic in the
aftermath of the outbreak, but failed to warn the world for six days.
During those days, from January 14 to January 20, Wuhan,
where the outbreak was first recorded, reportedly hosted a mass banquet for
tens of thousands of people, with more travels taking place in and out of
China.
“President Xi Jinping warned the public on the seventh day,
Jan. 20.” AP reported
But by that time, more than 3,000 people had been infected
during almost a week of public silence, according to internal documents
obtained by The Associated Press and expert estimates.
The news agency cited internal bulletins as saying before
the six-day delay, the preceding two weeks witnessed no new coronavirus cases
reported by local officials, but saw “hundreds of patients appearing in
hospitals not just in Wuhan but across the country.”
It said while it is not clear whether local officials failed
to report cases or national officials who failed to record them, interviews
suggested that China’s rigid controls and bureaucracy “muffled early warnings”
about a pandemic.
It quoted documents as revealing how Ma Xiaowei, head of
China’s National Health Commission, “laid out a grim assessment of the
situation on Jan. 14 in a confidential teleconference with provincial health
officials.”
“The epidemic situation is still severe and complex, the
most severe challenge since SARS in 2003, and is likely to develop into a major
public health event,” the memo quoted Ma as saying.
A section of the memo titled: “Sober understanding of the
situation” is further quoted as stating that “clustered cases suggest that
human-to-human transmission is possible.”
“With the coming of the Spring Festival, many people will be
travelling, and the risk of transmission and spread is high,” the memo read.
“All localities must prepare for and respond to a pandemic.”
This is not the first time China has been accused of
mismanaging the coronavirus pandemic, an allegation it has repeatedly denied.
The doctor who detected the virus was reportedly threatened
while other colleagues were punished for “rumour-mongering.”
Researchers later found that cases of coronavirus — which
have now exceeded two million and killed at least 137,000 globally — could have
been cut by up to two-thirds if earlier warnings were issued to the public.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the coronavirus
as a pandemic more than two months into the outbreak.
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