According to a leaked official document from the Hubei Province in China, the number of coronavirus cases reported to national and international newspapers were incorrect.
The data obtained from the document reports almost six thousand confirmed cases of COVID-19 whereas; in February only 2,400 cases were announced.
The global healthcare officials declared that this matter is something that cannot be dismissed merely as a mistake. It had global implications and China withheld information related to COVID-19 from the world, potentially impacting global response.
The leaked 117-page document exposes the errors of Chinese healthcare systems and also, the political cover-up to hide the actual numbers from the world.
The daily death toll reported on 17th of February was about half of the real deaths reported on that day due to the coronavirus.
By March, it was reported that 2,989 people had lost their lives to the virus whereas, the true total number was 3,456.
The misinformation regarding the number of reported cases and the death toll gave the world a false impression. The coronavirus situation was compared to the spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in 2003, which was eventually controlled.
It was globally expected that the virus would be gradually brought under control. The world did not prepare to tackle the alarming situation.
China already had a couple of hundred COVID-19 cases by the end of 2019, but it announced the first 50 cases in Jan 2020 and later declared it the coronavirus.
If the international healthcare systems were provided with the real numbers, the situation would have been different now. The world would have prepared and educated the public regarding the novel virus.
Another health official said that it was intentional deception on China’s part. This could have been an attempt to disclose the errors and failures of Chinese healthcare systems.
With the world’s fastest-growing economy, China had to defend its healthcare systems from being looked down upon internationally. Chinese officials kept the real number of COVID-19 cases confidential to avoid any fingers being pointed to their healthcare systems.
By the end of 2019, China showed a surprising increase in flu cases, especially in Wuhan and nearby cities that later became the hotspot for COVID-19 and its global spread. But all this information was kept hidden from the eyes of the world till the documents got leaked recently.
