Chinese Virus

Chinese Virus www.infralive.com 30 Infra LIVE April 15, 2020 reported cases dating back even earlier than those seen by the Post . According to the World Health Organisation’s website, the first confirmed Covid-19 case in China was on December 8, but the global body does not track the disease itself but relies on nations to pro- vide such information. As per the data provided by China to WHO, the number of Covid-19 Positive cases were at 27 as on December 31, 2019, com- pared to 266 reported by the Post from the records of the Chinese government. Suppression of information Dr Ai Fen, director of the emer- gency department at Wuhan Cen- tral Hospital, told Chinese maga- zine People that she posted an image of a diagnostic report on social network WeChat on Decem- ber 30, showing that the patient had a pneumonia infection caused by a SARS-like coronavirus. The interview suggests local health authorities in Wuhan missed an opportunity to issue a warning about an imminent outbreak before the virus spread. It was published on March 10, 2020 but later deleted from the magazine's WeChat account, prompting angry internet users to repost the article on other plat- forms. The magazine is published by the state-run People's Publish- ing House. In the interview, Dr Ai said she initially shared the diagnostic report with a messaging group on WeChat and its members then circulated the photograph. Dr Ai said the report, which was sent by a colleague, concerned her because the infection appeared to be similar to severe acute respira- tory syndrome (SARS). The SARS epidemic 17 years ago infected more than 8,000 people worldwide and killed over 800, according to the World Health Organisation. Dr Ai told the magazine she alerted the hospital's community health service centre and infec- tious disease control department Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, told China's health authorities that the disease was caused by a new coronavirus. By that date, more than 180 people had been infected, though doctors might not have been aware of all of them at the time. By the final day of 2019, the number of confirmed cases had risen to 266. On the first day of 2020 it stood at 381.” While the government records have not been released to the public, they provide valuable clues about how the disease spread in its early days and the speed of its transmission, as well as how many confirmed cases China has recorded. Of the first nine cases to be reported in November - four men and five women - none has been confirmed as being “patient zero”. They were all aged between 39 and 79, but it is unknown how many were residents of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei and the epi- centre of the outbreak. It is possible that there were Dr Li Wenliang Dr Ai Fen