“Why didn’t the country announce this earlier? Why didn’t they inform everyone to take precautions sooner? Did it have to escalate to such severity?” A medical worker in Wuhan recalled asking these questions more than five years ago, as she witnessed patient after patient succumb to the new coronavirus infection.
The global COVID-19 pandemic that originated in Wuhan has resulted in over seven million deaths worldwide outside of China. However, the true number of infections and deaths in China remains a mystery to this day.
According to official figures released by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as of January 8, 2023, the total number of COVID-19 deaths in various parts of China was reported to be 5,272, with the majority occurring in Hubei Province, totaling 4,515 deaths.
Ms. Zhang, a Wuhan medical worker who participated in the pandemic response, told Epoch Times that the official death toll published by Wuhan is approximately 3,800 cases, but she and those around her do not believe these official figures, considering them “pitiful and laughable.”
Ms. Zhang recalled that during the peak of the outbreak, each major hospital in Wuhan was seeing an average of 100 deaths per day from infected patients, totaling over 3,000 deaths in the city every day.
She mentioned that the most severe period of the Wuhan outbreak was from late December 2019 to the end of March 2020.
In early December 2019, cases of “unexplained pneumonia” appeared in Wuhan, later named COVID-19 by the World Health Organization (WHO). The virus quickly spread to Asia, Europe, the Americas, and other regions in January 2020.
With the severe outbreak of COVID-19, the CCP announced the “lockdown” of Wuhan on January 23, 2020. Approximately 9 million people were confined to their homes in Wuhan, with another 5 million fleeing before the lockdown. The entire Hubei Province, with a population of over 50 million, entered a lockdown state lasting more than two months.
Ms. Zhang stated that she was called to support the pandemic response in late January. In her hospital ward, where there were usually 3 to 4 patients, the critically ill patients were passing away every few days, averaging at least 5 deaths per floor each day, mostly elderly individuals.
Due to shortages of protective gear, medical personnel had to resort to using plastic bags during emergency procedures, leading to a series of issues.
Despite the lack of effective medications and proper clinical treatment protocols, patients were given supportive medications for comfort and monitored to see if they could survive.
Another heartbreaking situation was when patients, seemingly stable, would suddenly collapse upon moving, due to insufficient oxygen supply causing a fatal decline in their health.
Ms. Zhang vividly remembers the chaotic scenes in hospitals and on the eerily deserted streets of Wuhan during the peak of the outbreak, where ambulances were the only vehicles seen running day and night.
As the pandemic worsened, families were unable to bid a proper farewell to their loved ones as strict infection control measures prevented visitations, leaving them only with sanitized belongings to collect from the hospitals.
The reluctance to undertake aggressive resuscitation measures due to the risk of viral aerosol spread led to a higher mortality rate among elderly patients.
Ms. Zhang expressed her anguish for those who suffered and lamented the lack of timely information and preventive measures from the authorities, emphasizing that early action could have potentially prevented the scale of devastation seen.
The authorities not only failed to warn about the impending pandemic but also allowed large gatherings and events, such as the New Year celebration on December 31, 2019, and the community banquet on January 18, 2020, to take place in Wuhan.
Even the police reprimanded and silenced Dr. Li Wenliang, a whistleblower on the outbreak, labeling him as a rumor monger. Dr. Li eventually succumbed to the virus on February 6, 2020.
Ms. Zhang pointed out that many Wuhan residents initially believed the concealment of information stemmed from bureaucratic incompetence rather than intentional deception. However, as events unfolded, including the extensive lockdown and economic downturn, they began to realize the extent of the government’s malfeasance, raising suspicions of hidden agendas behind the scenes.
(To be continued)