Amid blame game about the virus between nations, a report based on unpublished Chinese government data has traced the first case of COVID-19 to November 17 in China.
Chinese authorities had identified at least 266 people and they were under surveillance, a report in the South China Morning Post said.
China has been widely criticized for covering up the incident, including crackdowns on doctors who tried to warn on social media of a new SARS-like virus which was emerging in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province.
A 55-year-old from Hubei province was reportedly the first person to get this virus. There were 60 confirmed cases by December 20, according to the same report. However, official statements by WHO and the Chinese government say that the first case was diagnosed on December 8. The authorities publicly acknowledged the same on January 21.
“We know that there are reports of early suppression of reports of cases, and the ‘whistleblowers’ dealt with rather severely. But in fairness, the signs and symptoms of COVID-19 are non-specific and even now, without confirmatory testing, it is easy to mistake this for another disease,” said Jonathan Mayer, professor emeritus at the University of Washington’s department of epidemiology to The Guardian.
Mayer also said there is high improbably that patient zero would ever be identified.
China’s foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian on Thursday made a claim that the US army may have brought it into China.
The novel coronavirus can live in the air for several hours. It can also survive on some surfaces for two to three days, according to tests by the US government.
The pandemic has infected at least 139,018 people across the world and killed 5,116. However, 70,727 people have recovered.
There is some good news as the number of new cases dropped to 15 in China on Thursday, though cases in Italy spiked to 2300 on a single day.
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