'China didn't warn of likely pandemic for 6 critical days'

President Xi Jinping warned the public on the seventh day, January 20. But by that time, more than 3,000 people had been infected during almost a week of public silence, according to internal documents obtained by AP and expert estimates based on retrospective infection data.

Updated On Apr 16, 2020 at 07:56 AM IST

In the six days after top Chinese officials secretly determined they likely were facing a pandemic from a coronavirus, the city of Wuhan at the epicentre of the disease hosted a mass banquet for tens of thousands of people; millions began travelling through for Lunar New Year celebrations.

President Xi Jinping warned the public on the seventh day, January 20. But by that time, more than 3,000 people had been infected during almost a week of public silence, according to internal documents obtained by AP and expert estimates based on retrospective infection data.

That delay from January 14 to January 20 was neither the first mistake made by Chinese officials, nor the longest lag, as governments around the world have dragged their feet for weeks and even months in addressing the virus. But the delay by the first country to face the new coronavirus came at a critical time - the beginning of the outbreak. China's attempt to walk a line between alerting the public and avoiding panic set the stage for a pandemic that has infected over 2 million people.

" This is tremendous," said Zuo-Feng Zhang, an epidemiologist at the University of California. "If they took action six days earlier, there would have been much fewer patients and medical facilities would have been sufficient."

The documents show that the head of China's National Health Commission, Ma Xiaowei, laid out a grim assessment of the situation on January 14 in a confidential teleconference with provincial health officials. A memo states that the teleconference was held to convey instructions on the coronavirus from President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang and vice-premier Sun Chunlan, but does not specify what those instructions were. "The epidemic situation is still severe and complex, the most severe challenge since SARS in 2003, and is likely to develop into a major public health event," the memo cites Ma as saying.

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In a faxed statement, the commission said it had organised the teleconference because of the first case outside China - in Thailand on January 13 - and the possibility of the virus spreading during New Year travel. In the memo, Ma demanded officials unite around Xi and made clear that political considerations and social stability were key priorities during the long lead-up to China's two biggest political meetings of the year in March. While the documents do not spell out why Chinese leaders waited six days to make their concerns public, the meetings may be one reason.

China has repeatedly denied suppressing information in the early days, saying it immediately reported the outbreak to the WHO. "Allegations of a cover-up or lack of transparency in China are groundless," said foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian at a Thursday press conference. The documents come from an anonymous source in the medical field who did not want to be named for fear of retribution. The AP confirmed the contents with two other sources in public health familiar with the teleconference. Some of the memo's contents also appeared in a public notice about the teleconference, stripped of key details and published in February.