Coronavirus in China: contaminations in Wuhan ten times higher than the official toll
Wuhan, the main city in Hubei province is where the coronavirus epidemic started.
STR AFP / File
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
In China, a government serological study reveals that 4.43% of Wuhan residents were infected in April, the day after the peak of the health crisis.
Compared to the total population of the megalopolis, this represents more than 480,000 inhabitants of the cradle of the epidemic who have been infected.
These figures are ten times higher than the official balance sheet announced by the Chinese authorities.
Publicity
Read more
From our correspondent in Beijing,
Zhifan Liu
Chinese authorities reported some 50,000 contaminations in
Wuhan
.
This study also provides food for thought to critics of the communist regime who denounce its lack of transparency in its management of the epidemic.
Like
CCTV
, the Chinese state channel, for whom this study demonstrates the effectiveness of the health response of public authorities.
On Weibo, China's Twitter, the country's first television channel, published a text highlighting that the risk of infection was very low on Chinese soil.
This post received thousands of
likes
and numerous comments from internet users praising the efforts of the central government in the prevention and control of the epidemic.
A message from the host below the post nonetheless recalls that message filtering has been set up to limit vicious attacks or spam.
Weibo, like the rest of the Chinese Internet, is strictly controlled by Chinese censors.
Little room for debate
Censorship leaves little room for debate as dissonant voices still try to make themselves heard.
Starting with the Chinese expert in immunology, Tao Lina, who questions the conclusions of this study and openly questions the veracity of the official figures.
But the article in question, published on the Wechat application, was quickly deleted from the Internet.
►Also read: China: “citizen journalist” Zhang Zhan sentenced to four years in prison
The communist regime is particularly vigilant on the narrative linked to the Chinese health response.
A few days ago,
Zhang Zhan, a 37-year-old citizen journalist
, was sentenced to four years in prison for her reporting in the city of Wuhan, under lockdown, at the start of the epidemic.
She had filmed deserted streets and overwhelmed hospitals with the influx of patients.
Three other citizen journalists who had rushed to Wuhan before the lockdown was put in place were also arrested for their investigations in the cradle of the epidemic.
Chinese government opacity
This study, like the conviction of this journalist, relaunches the debate on the opacity of the Chinese government in its management of the epidemic, a debate illustrated by confidential documents from the health authorities of the province of Hubei, in which Wuhan is located. .
Relayed by whistleblowers and published by
CNN
, this report pointed to the lack of preparation of local authorities and a clear underestimation of the number of contaminations at the start of the epidemic in the megalopolis in the center of the country.
But for Beijing, nothing and no one can contradict the official version of history that China has won the people's war against the virus.
On Thursday December 31, the central government finally approved the marketing of the first Chinese vaccine when more than 1.5 million inhabitants have already been vaccinated.
On social media, this news brought a wave of optimism and congratulations to the Chinese Communist Party.
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
China
Coronavirus
Health and medicine
On the same subject
Covid-19: a rare account of the pandemic seen from Wuhan, by writer Fang Fang
International guest
Management of the Covid-19 epidemic: the perspective of Dr Philippe Klein, doctor in Wuhan
Great report
Wuhan year zero, suffering and redemption of the martyred city of the coronavirus in China