A data set of new cases of deaths and deaths from the Corona virus (Covid-19), issued by the National University of Defense Technology, affiliated to the Chinese army, which was leaked to the Foreign Policy magazine, revealed that the Corona virus spread in 230 cities including Wuhan, and the document provided a look Insight into how Beijing is collecting emerging virus data for its residents. The official information posted on the Internet corresponds to the leaked information, but the former is much less detailed.
Although not entirely comprehensive, the data is incredibly rich; It shows that there are more than 640,000 information updates covering at least 230 cities. In other words, there is 640,000 rows in the graph, showing the number of cases in specific locations, at the time of data collection.
Each update includes the number of latitude and longitude for "confirmed" cases, on site, on dates from early February to late April.
But most importantly, the leaked data could serve as a valuable set of information for epidemiologists and public health experts around the world, a data set that Beijing has not shared with US officials or doctors.
As for the locations in and around the outbreak center, in Wuhan, Hubei Province, the data also includes the deaths and those who "recovered". It is unclear how "confirmed" and "recovered" were defined by the data set authors. Like other countries, China updated counting methods, as shown in mid-February when reported Hubei cases increased, because officials announced that they included patients who had been diagnosed with a CT scan.
The leaked data refer to one case of coronavirus in KFC, in the eastern city of Dingjiang, on March 14, for example, while a church in the capital of the northeastern province of Harbin witnessed two cases, on March 17. The data did not include the names of individuals who fell ill or died, and it was not possible to independently verify case reports in the data set.
According to its website, the National Defense Technology University, based in Changsha, central China, is "under the direct leadership of the Central Military Commission", the body that oversees the Chinese army. The army played a major role in mobilizing against the new virus.
In addition, the database will not be available to the public, now, for security reasons, at a time when ways to make data available to researchers studying the spread of a virus are being explored.