China Hid Over 43,000 Confirmed Coronavirus Cases

And a joint study by a panel of experts in China, the United States, Britain and Hong Kong in January estimated that upward of 79 percent of confirmed coronavirus cases in Wuhan were spread by individuals showing mild or no symptoms.

“These undocumented infections often experience mild, limited, or no symptoms and hence go unrecognized, and, depending on their contagiousness and numbers, can expose a far greater portion of the population to the virus than would otherwise occur,” the panel reported.

The WHO did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment on China’s failure to report asymptomatic coronavirus cases.

China’s handling of coronavirus at the onset of the outbreak has come under intense scrutiny.

In early January, Chinese authorities reprimanded the first doctor in Wuhan to warn people about the virus, accusing him of “spreading rumors online” and “severely disrupting social order.”

The doctor, 34-year-old Li Wenliang, was forced to sign a statement apologizing for blowing the whistle on the virus. Li died from coronavirus in February.

Five million people fled Wuhan by the time Chinese authorities locked down what was then the epicenter of the virus on Jan. 23, enabling the virus to spread around the world at a remarkable pace.

As of early Monday afternoon, there were 347,457 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 16,113 deaths worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins.

Story cited here.

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