While infections in the rest of the world accelerate, the coronavirus epidemic is showing signs of easing at its center — China — with new cases slowing dramatically and recoveries gathering pace. Still, doubt remains over whether the government’s statistics show the full picture.
On Tuesday, China reported 119 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus, the lowest number in almost six weeks and the fewest since the national government started releasing data on Jan. 21. Of those, 115 cases were in Hubei province, where the virus first emerged in December and which still accounts for the majority of infections and deaths worldwide.
Eighty-four percent of cases, 97% of critical cases and more than 96% of deaths are within the province, which was placed under mass quarantine by the government on Jan. 23 to slow the virus’ spread to the rest of the country. The ongoing lockdown of the region of 60 million people has led to widespread suffering and scores of preventable deaths as the local medical system collapsed under the strain.
The lockdown also meant that China’s fatalities from the pathogen have been confined almost entirely to the province. As of Tuesday, 4.3% of people who were confirmed to have the virus in Hubei have died, while that rate is 0.9% in China outside Hubei.
Tragedy in Hubei
China has almost totally contained the deaths from coronavirus to Hubei
Over the past three weeks, China’s number of recovered patients has surged both in Hubei and the rest of the country, with the government sending in thousands of health-care workers to help in Hubei. Sixty-two percent of those who’ve been officially diagnosed with the disease are now better and out of hospital, according to the data from the National Health Commission on Wednesday.