A Chinese doctor, Professor Yuen Kwok-Yung, had recently told the BBC in an interview that he believed that local Wuhan officials covered up the scale of the initial COVID-19 outbreak.
As one of the doctors who diagnosed early COVID-19 cases, Prof Yuen helped in investigating the outbreak in Wuhan, revealing that physical evidence had been “destroyed” and that the response to clinic findings was slow.
He also recalled that when he visited the Huanan supermarket – where COVID-19 first broke out – that there was “nothing to see” as the market was already being cleaned up.
The doctor expressed that the “crime scene” had already been disturbed and that his team was not able to identify any host which transmitted the coronavirus to humans.
“When we went to the Huanan supermarket, of course, there was nothing to see because the market was clean already. So, you may say that the crime scene is already disturbed because the supermarket was cleared we cannot identify any host which is giving the virus to humans.”
Therefore, Prof Yuen suspected that the local officials in Wuhan were covering up the truth, and he claimed that they did not relay the crucial information immediately.
“I do suspect that they have been doing some cover-up locally at Wuhan. The local officials who are supposed to immediately relay the information has not allowed this to be done as readily as it should.”
According to BBC, China had been criticised for its response to the COVID-19 outbreak, as well as for penalising the doctor who attempted to warn his colleagues about the coronavirus in December 2019.
However, China denied accusations against the nation for withholding information about the severity of the outbreak.