As many as half a million residents of the Chinese city where the coronavirus pandemic is believed to have originated may have been infected with the virus, about ten times more than the initially recorded number of confirmed cases.
According to a study released late Monday by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which surveyed more than 34,000 people in April, was found to carry about 4.4 percent of the tested antibodies that fight the virus that causes COVID-19.
The presence of antibodies means that the people have had the virus at some point in the past, and given the ratio, nearly 500,000 residents of Wuhan, which has a total population of 11 million, could have been infected.
This is almost ten times more than the 50,000 confirmed cases reported by the Chinese health authorities in mid-April.
According to Sunday, Wuhan reported a total of 50,354 confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission.
This week’s study showed that the infection rate in Wuhan was significantly higher than in other Chinese cities. For example, the survey found that only 0.44 percent of Hubei’s residents carry the antibodies.
According to CNN, Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Foreign Relations Council, said the initial underreporting in Wuhan could be attributed in part to the chaos of the early months of the pandemic, as well as the failure to treat asymptomatic cases of COVID. 19 te tel.
Huang pointed out that under-reporting is not a problem for Wuhan, as testing ability was limited and hospitals were overwhelmed by a sudden increase in patients, as little was known about the virus in the early months.
However, the Chinese government has also investigated and faced criticism over a suspected lack of transparency about the severity of the virus.
Monday a citizen journalist who reported from Wuhan at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in China was sentenced to four years in prison after he was reportedly guilty of ‘picking quarrels and provoking problems’ according to a number of reports.
The Chinese government is using the charge against human rights activists and other dissidents.
Zhang Zhan, 37, traveled to Wuhan in February, filming hospitals, neighborhoods and more while the city closed during the initial outbreak of COVID-19. Her report accused the government of not informing citizens about the reality of the pandemic.
Prosecutors accused Zhang of “publishing large amounts of false information” and receiving interviews from international media to “maliciously incite the Wuhan Covid-19 epidemic situation.” CNN reported.