SHANGHAI (Reuters) – The number of people infected with COVID-19 in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus was first identified, could be about three times the official figure, according to a study by Chinese researchers in the city.
The article, published Thursday by the PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases journal, analyzed blood samples from more than 60,000 healthy individuals taken from locations across China from March to May 2020.
It found that 1.68% of Wuhan people had antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, compared to 0.59% in the surrounding Hubei province and 0.38% in the rest of China .
With the city’s total population of more than 10 million, the researchers estimate that as many as 168,000 Wuhan residents were infected with the virus, compared to the official figure of 50,340 hospital cases.
The study suggested that at least two-thirds of the total number were asymptomatic, and that thousands could be infected after the “elimination” of clinical cases, increasing the possibility that the virus could occur in a community for a long period of time without hospitalization. to cause.
A separate study published late last month by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) put the rate of ‘seroprevalence’ in Wuhan, the percentage of the population with antibodies, even higher at 4.43%, which implies that about half a million people in the city could be infected.
COVID-19 was identified in Wuhan in late 2019, with the first outbreak linked to a fish market in the city. China finally shut down Wuhan and other cities in Hubei province on January 23, 2020, but critics say it should have acted sooner.
China has rejected criticism of the virus’s early treatment, and officials are now pointing to foreign studies suggesting it was circulating in Europe several months before the Wuhan outbreak.
A 10-person team from the World Health Organization is said to arrive in China this week to investigate the origins of COVID-19, but they have not yet received permission to enter the country.
The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases to date in mainland China now stands at 87,331, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
Reporting by David Stanway; Editing by Michael Perry