Leaked internal documents uncover that China mismanaged the early stages of the coronavirus crisis, as the country underreported cases amid the infectious spread of the virus beyond its borders.

The documents were obtained by CNN through a whistleblower who reportedly worked in the Chinese healthcare system and revealed that China battled to handle the coronavirus for six months during the peak of the pandemic when cases surged worldwide.

The 117 pages of documents from the Hubei Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which the network verified by six experts, indicated that on Feb. 10—when cases outside of China were less than 400—Chinese health officials reported 2,478 new cases, bringing the worldwide coronavirus case count to more than 40,000. The documents, however, show that the Hubei Provincial CDC recorded 5,918 new cases the same day, with 2,345 “confirmed cases,” 1,772 “clinically diagnosed cases” and 1,796 “suspected cases.”

Wuhan, where the coronavirus reportedly originated, is the provincial capital of Hubei.

The reported number of deaths caused by COVID-19 was also clouded, as Hubei’s official fatality count was 2,986 as of March 7, but the internal documents reveal that it was 3,456. The documents also unveiled that the average time to fully process a coronavirus case—the time from when a person displayed symptoms to a confirmed diagnosis of the infection—took 23.3 days, a period of time that likely interfered with the ability to contain the spread of the virus.

“China hasn’t simply underreported its numbers, it tried to cover up the initial outbreak of the pandemic. Both moves have had catastrophic results,” Michael Beckley, a Jeane Kirkpatrick Visiting Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and associate professor at Tufts University, said in an interview via email. “Had China been transparent from the start, other countries would have been more prepared to contain the virus, potentially saving hundreds of thousands of lives.”

Beckley added that China’s underreporting efforts “impedes international efforts” to trace and isolate infected people, “guaranteeing continual flare-ups” of the coronavirus.

China has forcefully denied allegations brewed in the United States and other governments that it intentionally misled the public information regarding the coronavirus crisis, with the country saying it was a “victim” of false information surrounding the scope of the pandemic.

While CNN’s reports don’t explicitly indicate that China purposely withheld information, it does reveal that data presented to the public were different from what Chinese officials recorded. 

During the early days of the coronavirus outbreak in late 2019, Hubei was boiling in a widespread influenza epidemic that had cases skyrocketing to nearly twenty times more than reported during the previous year, which likely created friction with China’s handling of the novel coronavirus with having to manage two infectious outbreaks. 

“China’s doctored numbers also create the false and dangerous impression that China’s brutal authoritarian regime has handled the pandemic better than liberal democracies. That narrative helps the Chinese Communist Party boost its soft power at America's expense, reinforce its grip on power, and encourage other countries to turn away from liberal democracy,” Beckley said. 

According to Johns Hopkins University coronavirus data, China has 92,902 confirmed cases with 4,743 deaths, while the United States has 13,541,221 coronavirus cases and 268,045 deaths as of Tuesday. 

Rachel Bucchino is a reporter at the National Interest. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report and The Hill. 

Image: Reuters