Ever since China’s Wuhan was believed to be the source of Covid-19 pandemic, the country has deliberately lied, suppressed crucial information and destroyed evidence related to the coronavirus outbreak. More so, the country has censored academic research in an attempt to control the narrative and has also silenced doctors and whistleblowers.
Now, new leaked documents from China has revealed that the country mishandled the early COVID-19 pandemic through misleading public data and three-week delays in test results, CNN reported Monday. Notably, 117 pages of internal documents from the Hubei Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were leaked by a whistleblower and obtained by the CNN.
The files showed how the region struggled to manage the coronavirus between October 2019 and April 2020- a critical time period in which the virus spread from China to cause a worldwide pandemic, as per CNN.
-On February 10, China publicly reported 2,478 new confirmed cases while privately reporting 5,918 new cases – a 139 per cent difference and almost double the official the public number of confirmed cases.
-A week later, China publicly reported 93 deaths in Hubei province, while privately reporting 196 – a difference of more than double.
-On March 7, China publicly reported the death total in Hubei at 2,986 while privately reporting 3,456.
The documents also reveal that Hubei was enduring an influenza epidemic in late 2019, which led to cases being 20 times higher than the previous year.
Meanwhile, China has indulged in another round of blame game and has repeatedly all accusations that it deliberately concealed information relating to the virus. Recently, Chinese researchers also claimed that the deadly virus originated in India in the summer of 2019 — jumping from animals to humans via contaminated water.
Earlier, Chinese authorities have tried to shift the blame to Italy, the US and Europe — largely without evidence.