A study on antibodies to coronavirus in the Wuhan population conducted in mid-April suggests that the actual COVID-19 infection count may have been 10 times higher than the figures reported by health officials.
Of the 11 million people living in the city, China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that 4.43% had antibodies to the virus. That percentage reaches almost 500,000 people who contracted the new virus, but at the time, the city was reporting about 50,000 infections.
The CDC study involved a sample of more than 34,000 people in Wuhan and six neighboring provinces. Wuhan is where the virus was first detected almost a year ago.
Outside Wuhan, the study found that the prevalence of antibodies was significantly lower, recording 0.44%. The CDC said the low rate indicates that measures to control Wuhan’s disease “effectively prevented the virus from spreading on a large scale,” according to the South China Morning Post.
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The discrepancy in the number of reported coronavirus infections and the potential number of real diseases could be due to mishaps and testing difficulties at the start of the outbreak, as well as asymptomatic spread, experts told the media. There were also differences in how cases were counted between health agencies during the peak of the first wave.
“We don’t know exactly how much we lost, but it gives us an idea that we lost a little,” Ian Mackay, associate professor at the University of Queensland in Australia, told the South China Morning Post.
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It was not clear whether the health agency planned to publish the data in a newspaper or whether it was being considered for peer review.
People line up for doctors to take samples for the coronavirus test at a large factory in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, on May 15.
(AP / Chinatopix)
On Monday, China sentenced a former lawyer who reported the first stages of the outbreak to four years in prison. Zhang Zhan was accused of spreading false information, giving false interviews to foreign media, disturbing public order and “maliciously” manipulating the outbreak, according to the Associated Press.
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The country has faced previous allegations of covering up the true depth of the outbreak in the early stages and potentially allowing the virus to spread around the world through delays in sharing information and refusing to allow investigative teams from other countries.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.