SHANGHAI (Reuters) – The number of people infected with COVID-19 in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus was first identified, could be about three times the official number, according to a study by Chinese researchers based in the city .
The article, published by PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases on Thursday, analyzed blood samples from more than 60,000 healthy individuals drawn from sites across China from March to May 2020.
He found that 1.68% of people in Wuhan contained antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, compared with 0.59% in Hubei province and 0.38% in the rest of China.
With the city’s total population of more than 10 million, the researchers estimated that up to 168,000 residents of Wuhan were infected with the virus, compared to the official number of 50,340 hospitalized cases.
The study suggested that at least two-thirds of the total number were asymptomatic and thousands could have been infected after the “elimination” of clinical cases, raising the possibility that the virus could remain in the community for a long period without causing hospitalizations.
A separate study published by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at the end of last month put the “seroprevalence” rate in Wuhan, the percentage of the population with antibodies even higher, 4.43%, implying that about half a million people in the city may have been infected.
COVID-19 was identified in Wuhan in late 2019, with the first outbreak associated with a seafood market in the city. China finally blocked Wuhan and other cities in Hubei province on January 23, 2020, but critics say it should have acted earlier.
China has rejected criticism of the virus’s early treatment, and officials now point to studies abroad suggesting it was circulating in Europe several months before the Wuhan outbreak.
A team of 10 members of the World Health Organization was due to arrive in China this week to investigate the origins of COVID-19, but they have not yet been authorized to enter the country.
The total number of COVID-19 cases confirmed to date in mainland China is now 87,331, while the death toll has remained unchanged at 4,634.
Reporting by David Stanway; Michael Perry Edition