Cover up?

It takes time to study and understand an unexpected attack by an unknown virus against human beings. China has provided timely information to the world in an open, transparent and responsible manner.

On Dec. 27, 2019, three cases of pneumonia of unknown cause were immediately reported by Zhang Jixian, a doctor in Wuhan, after she received the patients, the first reporting of suspected cases of a new disease by local authorities of China. On the same day, epidemiological investigation and testing on the patients concerned was conducted by the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The next few days witnessed two emergency notices and a situation report released by the Wuhan authorities. On Dec. 31, China informed the WHO China Country Office of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan. On Jan. 3, 2020, China began sending regular, timely updates about the novel coronavirus to the WHO, and other countries including the United States.

Following the first public reporting of the pneumonia by the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission on Dec. 31, China completed the identification and sequencing of the virus as early as on Jan. 7, and shared the genome sequence information with WHO and other countries on Jan. 11.

On Jan. 20, the high-level expert group of the National Health Commission informed the media that the novel coronavirus could be transmitted from person to person. On Jan. 22, the WHO issued a warning about the potential risk of human-to-human transmission on its website, and eight days later, it declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).

"The WHO has been in constant technical communication with China since Jan. 3 on the severity, transmission dynamics and the possibility of sustained human-to-human transmission, the clinical course, and effectiveness of treatments, and the WHO has provided detailed information to the international community under the framework of the International Health Regulations (IHR)," said Dr. Gauden Galea, WHO representative in China.

Medical staff members from Jiangsu Province examine patients at the temporary hospital converted from Wuhan Sports Center in Wuhan, Feb. 17, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua]

China's transparency in data releasing has been consistent. On April 17, Wuhan issued a notification revising up confirmed cases by 325 to a total of 50,333, and fatal cases by 1,290 to a total of 3,869.

Revision is by no means equal to covering-up. On the contrary, it was out of a high sense of responsibility to the people and to the lives lost to the coronavirus that Wuhan took the initiative to revise the numbers. When the city was first hit by the virus, hospitals were running overloaded and some patients passed away at home, and there were missed, delayed, inadequate or inaccurate reporting of cases.

Medical workers help the first batch of patients infected with the novel coronavirus move into their isolation wards at Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan, Feb. 4, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua]

On April 28, Christoffer Koch and Ken Okamura, two economists from the United States and the United Kingdom, jointly published a paper based on studies of the data from China, Italy and the United States. They found that the confirmed infections in China match the distribution expected in Benford's Law and are similar to those in the other two countries, concluding that there is no possibility of manipulation of figures.

Export cases?

With the most comprehensive, rigorous and thorough measures taken by the Chinese government within the shortest possible time, the number of infections in China was reduced by more than 700,000.

Having effectively broken the chain of transmission domestically, it is no surprise that very few cases were exported from China, the country with the largest populations and where COVID-19 cases were earliest found.

Wuhan, the earliest epicenter of COVID-19, was put under lockdown between Jan. 23 and April 8. So it was impossible for Wuhan residents to travel overseas during this period of time.

Two days after Wuhan was put under lockdown, 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities of China activated the highest-level disease response. Starting from Jan. 24, 42,000 medical workers from across the country rallying in over 330 medical teams set out to the front line in Hubei Province.

With massive human and material resources being polled in, two makeshift hospitals, accommodating 1,000 and 1,600 beds respectively, were constructed in 10 and 15 days. Meanwhile, a total of 16 mobile hospitals were put in place to accommodate over 13,000 patients.

People work at the construction site of Leishenshan Hospital in Wuhan, Feb. 4, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua]

In Wuhan, over 44,500 primary-level Party officials were sent to 13,800 residential communities, building up a strong line of defense against the virus. Social distancing measures have been supported and strictly observed nationwide, effectively curbing the spread of the virus.

Regarding the suspected cases and close contacts, they have been placed under quarantine at designated places to stem further spread of the virus.

The high speed and massive scale of China's response have been rarely seen in the world, demonstrating China's speed, scale and efficiency, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, adding that China's experience is worth learning for other countries.

A staff member from Wuhan government department who works as a community inspector, measures a visitor's temperature at the entrance of a residential block in Wuhan, Feb. 10, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua]

This explains why China's nationwide infection rate has stayed relatively low and refutes the claim that "China spreads the virus to the rest of the world."

-- In the United States, the New York Times cited U.S. research that most New York coronavirus cases did not come from Asia.

-- In Canada, data from its major provinces show that the virus was brought into the country by U.S. visitors.

-- In France, research found that the virus strain circulating locally is of unknown origin.

-- In Singapore, cases imported from China were less than one-tenth of those from other countries.

-- In Japan, researchers believed that the strain confirmed in the country since early March was not from China.

-- In Russia, none of the imported cases was from China.