At the time when China is facing criticism for the so-called Coronavirus coverup, alleged manipulation of the actual death toll and the leak of the virus from Wuhan lab, China's top medical advisor said the country, which has experienced devastating situation due to the COVID-19 in the past few months, is still vulnerable to a second wave.
The Chinese government's senior medical adviser, Dr Zhong Nanshan who has been the public face of the country's fight against novel Coronavirus said in an interview with CNN, "The majority of ... Chinese at the moment are still susceptible of the Covid-19 infection, because (of) a lack of immunity," adding that "We are facing (a) big challenge, it's not better than the foreign countries I think at the moment."
He also confirmed that local authorities in Wuhan, where the virus infection was first reported in December 2019, had suppressed key details about the scale of the initial outbreak.
Chinese medical advisor who revealed everything
It should be mentioned that China is the first country to be affected by the virus outbreak, especially Hubei's Wuhan city is where the Coronavirus is believed to have originated. Earlier on several occasions, it was revealed that China has been hiding facts about the virus and the local authorities in Wuhan tried to silence researchers as well as the doctors who wanted to alert people about the SARS-like virus outbreak.
Now, Zhong also confirmed that officials were not being honest about the magnitude of the pandemic while stating that "They didn't like to tell the truth at that time." Earlier the U.S., top critic of China, especially US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed that Beijing was not forthcoming about the severity of the Coronavirus and their efforts to contain it.
But in China, new cases started to appear after the country took an aggressive approach to combat the spread of the disease. Till Saturday, China has reported more than 84,000 COVID-19 cases, compared to over 1.4 million in the U.S.
New clusters of Coronavirus cases have emerged across China in recent weeks, including Wuhan and in the northeastern provinces of Heilongjiang and Jilin. After the reports showed the possibility of a new wave of the Coronavirus in China, authorities decided to test all the residents of Wuhan. As of now, some eight million residents are undergoing the world's largest mass testing for COVID-19.
The current tests in Wuhan are being carried out five weeks after Hubei's city opened up on April 8 ending a 76-day lockdown. It should be noted that Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, was badly affected by the outbreak, accounting for over 50,000 infections and almost 3,800 deaths.
What Zong has claimed?
As per the top Chinese medical advisor, the vaccines are under clinical trials in China, but a "perfect" solution won't likely be available for years. However, it should be noted that this comment came after Trump's claim about the vaccine's availability in the U.S. by January next year.
In addition, Zhong told CNN "We have to test again and again and again ... by using different kinds of vaccines," adding that "It's too early to draw any conclusion which kind of vaccine is available for this kind of coronavirus ... that's why I suggest that the final approval of vaccine (will) take much longer."
