China reported over 100 new cases on 12th April 2020. With a second wave of Coronavirus looming over the epicentre nation, China is making efforts to improve its image on the global front by taking steps like vetting research papers on Coronavirus that universities publish. Complete Coverage: Coronavirus
Crux of the Matter
COVID-19 in China Wuhan in the Hubei province of China was the epicenter of the pandemic Coronavirus. China was apparently able to stem the virus in the first week of March. China kept reporting a few cases every day, most of it imported (as per China’s claims) – people who had traveled from abroad. On 11th April, 99 new cases were reported. On 12th April 2020, Sunday, it reported 108 new cases, highest since 6 March. Although most of these cases were allegedly imported, Beijing is worried about a second wave. On Monday, 13th April, it also reported 61 asymptomatic cases, which are on the rise in China since some time. People who do not show COVID-19 symptoms but also carry the virus are called silent carriers, who pose an imminent threat to the second wave that China is apprehensive about. China’s Heilongjiang province that borders Russia reported 56 new cases, of which 49 had traveled from Russia. Suifenhe and Harbin of the Heilongjiang province are now quarantining everyone who has traveled from abroad for 28 days and conducting antibody and nucleic acid tests on them. Harbin is mulling over locking down residential units if asymptomatic cases are found for 14 days.
Just China Things Recently, China removed academic research on the origin of Coronavirus published online by two prominent Chinese Universities. The universities published the papers online and then deleted after the new guideline for publishing documents pertaining to Coronavirus online was issued. According to it, research papers will go through an academic committee that will check “the accuracy of the thesis and its publication suitability”. Thereafter, it will be sent to the Ministry of Science and Technology for the second round of vetting. The paper would be published online only after the Ministry clears it. Due to Coronavirus, China’s global image has been tarnished as many nations have condemned China for lax measures and opaqueness in sharing information about the virus. At the outbreak of the virus in Wuhan, Dr. Li Wenliang blew the whistle over a pneumonia-like outbreak in the region. He was silenced by the Chinese government. He later succumbed to the virus. In an effort that seems to be like a part of the larger scheme of controlling the narrative that salvages China’s global image, China has now put a leash on the online publication of documents related to Coronavirus.
Curiopedia
Preliminary investigation and research in January by China stated that they found no clear evidence of human to human transmission of Coronavirus. WHO also supported the statement by tweeting about it, even as Taiwan countered the claim. Later both China and WHO faced major backlash due to it.
China has a history of not releasing actual numbers of casualties related to a particular event. For example, for the Tiananmen Square protests, the Chinese authorities said that only 300 protestors died. Although other reports state that at least 3000 protestors were killed.
In medicine, a disease is considered asymptomatic if a patient is a carrier for a disease or infection but experiences no symptoms. Asymptomatic infections are also called subclinical infections.
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