During the early stages of the spread of the coronavirus in Wuhan City of China, the police stopped people from mentioning it on the Internet.

The Wuhan Police official Micro Blog account published a notice on January 1, 2020:

“Recently, some medical institutes in our city have received several pneumonia cases. The municipal National Health and Family Planning Commission issued a public statement. However, some netizens, without verifying the information, posted and forwarded false information on the Internet and caused an adverse social impact. The police organization, after investigation, has summoned eight persons who violated the law (in posting the information) and dealt with them according to the law.

“The police reminded (everyone), that the Internet is not a territory free from the law. Those who post information and discussion on the Internet must obey the relevant laws and regulations. The police will investigate and punish, with no tolerance, any illegal actions of fabricating and spreading rumors and disturbing the social order. We hope that all netizens obey the relevant laws and regulations; do not create rumors, believe in rumors, or spread rumors; and build a harmonious, clean cyberspace.”

{Editor’s Note: It is a norm in China for the Communist regime to silence voices that do not echo the party’s “main melody” or voices exposing information that the party does not want people to know.}

The first coronavirus case was reported in Wuhan on December 8, 2019. However, China made the issue “low key” until January 20, 2020, when it started to spread to several other countries, including Thailand, Japan, Korea, and the U.S.

Source: Phoenix Media, January 1, 2020
https://news.ifeng.com/c/7sstzV13dEx

In the past, the Chinese Communist regime had been reporting unbelievably low numbers on the Wuhan Coronavirus cases. On January 22, 2020, it admitted the existence of the outbreak in China and reported 547 cases nationwide, with 444 cases in Wuhan.

However, several people told the Epoch Times that the situation in Wuhan is much worse than what was reported.

Some netizens reported that groups of people who had a temperature had lined up at hospitals waiting to be inspected. Many were told, after getting a shot, to go home and quarantine themselves. After being diagnosed with pneumonia, some were not even accepted for hospitalization.

Dr. Wei, a doctor at a local community clinic, said that many doctors were infected because the government hid the information during the early stages of the spread. “For nearly two months, we worked (with the patients) without any protection. Five people in my organization were infected. That’s about 10 percent of the total employees.”

A nurse from the Wuhan Union Hospital, the best hospital in Wuhan, said that some her colleagues have been infected and went home for self-quarantine. “Now the hospital does not allow us to resign and won’t allow us to leave Wuhan. Many medical staff members have been infected, but the hospital will not confirm that they have the virus. The problem is that, once confirmed, they will receive free treatment and their cases will be added into the national count.” “There is no effective treatment; it’s all up to one’s own ability to resist. … I’m at work every day. I could receive a notice any day telling me stay in the hospital (to be quarantined).”

Another citizen posted on the Internet that she heard from the medical staff that the infected medical staff members amount not just to 15 cases as the authorities reported; it was more than 150. The second floor of the Wuhan Union Hospital is packed with the infected medical staff members.

A woman reported to Epoch Times that her brother’s treatment was delayed and he died on January 7. “My brother had the ‘unknown pneumonia’ and died in ten days. He was not included in the official count of the Wuhan Coronavirus deaths.”

Five other family members of hers are also likely to have contracted the infection from her brother. Her sister was hospitalized on January 4. Her brother’s daughter and son-in-law also got pneumonia. The hospitals said that they didn’t have beds to keep them there, so it told them to quarantine themselves at home. Every day, they needed to come to the hospital and stand in line for up to four hours to get a shot. The son-in-law is now too weak to walk that much. Her brother’s sister-in-law and her husband were also infected; the husband was quarantined at a hospital and the sister-in-law wanted to be checked, too.

“We have no other request,” said her brother’s daughter. “We just want a hospital bed. We want to live. We are also the infection source. (Keeping us out of the hospital) will infect other people.”

Sources:
1. Epoch Times, January 22, 2020
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/20/1/22/n11814163.htm
2. Epoch Times, January 22, 2020
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/20/1/22/n11812966.htm