China didn't warn public of likely pandemic for 6 key days

Apr 16, 20200

Li Tao – Associated Press count

In this Jan. 27, 2020, photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, center, speaks with medical workers at Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province. Top Chinese officials secretly determined they were likely facing a pandemic from a novel coronavirus in mid-January, ordering preparations even as they downplayed it in public. Internal documents obtained by the AP show that because warnings were muffled inside China, it took a confirmed case in Thailand to jolt Beijing into recognizing the possible pandemic before them.

In the six days after top Chinese officials secretly determined they likely were facing a pandemic from a new coronavirus, the city of Wuhan at the epicenter of the disease hosted a mass banquet for tens of thousands of people; millions began traveling through for Lunar New Year celebrations.

President Xi Jinping warned the public on the seventh day, Jan. 20. But by that time, more than 3,000 people had been infected during almost a week of public silence, according to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press and expert estimates based on retrospective infection data.

https://www.startribune.com/china-didn-t-warn-public-of-likely-pandemic-for-6-key-days/569651892/