The coronavirus or COVID-19 outbreak is currently spreading like wildfire around the world in recent times. An 84-year-old man who lost his life at the end of January due to the novel virus made him the first victim of the UK and added on the doubt on China's claims about the beginning of the pandemic, as per reports.
Peter Attwood, whose death got partly attributed to the novel virus by a coroner, died on January 30, which is over a month before what was previously thought to be UK's first virus death on March 2. It also made him the first person to lose life outside China due to the virus. The post-mortem tests on the man detected coronavirus in his lung tissue that led the coroner to record his cause of death as 'COVID-19 and bronchopneumonia'.
COVID-19 Cover-Up of China?
The daughter of the man named Jane Buckland said that her father got admitted to the hospital on January 7 with a bad cough and had never traveled abroad. She feared that he got the virus from her and developed a dry cough on December 28, a month before the first case was reported in the UK.
The East Asian nation had previously insisted that the virus was not found until the end of December and notified the first cases to the WHO on December 31. But the case of the 84-year-old man will aid the claims of the critics who have accused the Chinese government of a cover-up as there were claims the virus spread in October.
The virus was officially identified by the WHO on January 8 and China recorded the first death on January 11, which is believed to be linked to a wet market in Wuhan. The first recorded death in Europe was not reported until February 15.
The daughter of the 84-year-old deceased man said that the case of her father proves the virus was running rampant in the nation back in December of even earlier. She also blamed China for covering it up. Jane said that many lives could have been saved if the disease was known earlier.
Frech Athletes Fell Sick With Flu-Like Symptoms in October
"Every death is a tragedy. There is no evidence that there was sustained transmission within the community in January 2020. We acted swiftly to curb coronavirus and at all times we have been guided by the best available evidence to deliver a strategy designed to protect the NHS and save lives," a spokesman of the government said as reported by the Daily Mail.
The news comes after there were speculations that China tried to mask the scale of the virus and the dangers in its early days of discovery. There were claims that the symptoms of the virus were first detected in October. French athletes thought that they caught the virus while taking part in the Wolrd Military Games in Wuhan. Many of the athletes fell ill with bad flu-like symptoms.
Even in January, the Chinese officials prevented experts from outside to investigate the virus and even silenced doctors. The first case of the virus can be traced back to November 17, as per South China Morning Post. The deadly virus outbreak has created a major stir around the world infecting more than 27.5 million people globally and claimed the lives of over 898,000 people worldwide in more than 170 countries.
