On Friday, the Chinese government has revealed that the death toll in Wuhan, the place of origin of the deadly Coronavirus, has witnessed a 50% spike from what was previously reported. As such, the total deaths due to the Wuhan Coronavirus in China now stand at a whopping 3,869. 3,869 is the official number and as such, there are still strong suspicions that the actual number of infected and dead due to the Wuhan Coronavirus is far greater.
The revelation came following aspersions cast by world leaders about China withholding the impact of the pandemic in the country of its origin. In its defence, the Communist-ruled country said that the reports of additional death were either missed entirely or mistakenly reported.
This announcement comes after #China opening up #Wuhan on April 8 nearly after three months due to the #coronavirusoutbreakhttps://t.co/zKLMs10MuH
— WION (@WIONews) April 17, 2020
Pressure from World Leaders on China amidst the Wuhan Coronavirus
On April 3, the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison urged the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations to act against China’s wet markets. Generally, wet markets refer to the markets that sell fresh meat, fish, etc, but in China, these markets are known to sell the meat of wild animals, even smuggled endangered species from other nations, which are known sources of several deadly pathogens like the Wuhan Coronavirus.
Earlier, at the UNSC meeting, USA called for an analysis of the origins of Coronavirus, in an obvious dig at China, while the latter insisted that no country should be made a scapegoat and called for global solidarity in the wake of the pandemic. SG Anthony Gutierres’s call for a global ceasefire received no support and the only thing the UNSC agreed on was on press elements post the meet.
In a recent interview with the Financial Times, French President Emmanuel Macaroon expressed scepticism about China’s role and urged people not to be “naive” in assuming that it had been great at handling the Coronavirus pandemic. “We don’t know. There are clearly things that have happened that we don’t know about”, he reiterated.
On Friday, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said that hard questions must be asked to China about the origins of the deadly virus and how the outbreak was not stopped earlier.
Earlier it was reported that a 57-year-old female shrimp seller, Wei Guixian, at a Chinese wet market in Wuhan is believed to be the ‘Patient Zero’ or the first person to have been diagnosed with the virus. On December 11, 2019, she had visited a local clinic and was given an injection. When her condition worsened, Guxian rushed to the Eleventh Hospital in Wuhan. The doctors gave her some medicines but could not cure her disease. She then went to the Wuhan Union Hospital where a doctor had called her disease as “ruthless.”- article continues after ad — article resumes –
The notorious wet markets of China, which are believed to be the epicentres of the Chinese Coronavirus from where the deadly pandemic was exported to the rest of the world, have recently reopened, selling bats pangolins and dogs for human consumption.
A paper published by scientists years ago predicted the reemergence of such viruses. The paper published by Cheng VC, Lau SK, Woo PC and Yuen KY in 2007 warned, “The presence of a large reservoir of SARS-CoV-like viruses in horseshoe bats, together with the culture of eating exotic mammals in southern China, is a time bomb.” It added, “The possibility of the re-emergence of SARS and other novel viruses from animals or laboratories and therefore the need for preparedness should not be ignored.”
The cover-up by WHO – Mismanagement of Coronavirus
The US President Donald Trump had also suspended funding for the World Health Organisation (WHO) until a review was conducted to assess its role in mismanaging the Chinese coronavirus outbreak.
He said, “Everybody knows what is going on there. American taxpayers provide between 400-500 million dollars per year to the WHO and in contrast, China contributes roughly 40 million dollars a year or even less. As the organisation’s leading sponsor, the United States has a duty to insist on full accountability. One of the most dangerous and costly decisions from the WHO was its disastrous decision to oppose travel restrictions from China and other nations. “
