Wuhan, the pandemic's ground-zero, may have had 10 times as many COVID-19 cases, a study from China's CDC suggests

<p><img src="https://static3.businessinsider.com/image/5fec5ac7b7ab82001943e8dc-2000/wuhan testing.jpg" border="0" alt="wuhan testing" data-mce-source="Getty Images" data-mce-caption="A medical worker takes a swab from a resident for the novel coronavirus test during community on May 15, 2020 in Wuhan, Hubei, China."></p><p></p><bi-shortcode id="summary-shortcode" data-type="summary-shortcode" class="mceNonEditable" contenteditable="false">Summary List Placement</bi-shortcode><p>The number of COVID-19 cases seen in Wuhan since the pandemic's start could be 10 times as high, China's health agency has said.</p><p>A study of 34,000 people in Wuhan, published on Monday by the Chinese Centre for Disease Control (CDC,) found that 4.4% of the 11 million people who live in the city may have coronavirus antibodies before April.</p><p>It is unclear if the study has been peer-reviewed, and the results were <a href="https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/LXTfDmsQLf3qZnu_S_MxcA">published on the Chinese messaging site WeChat</a> by the CDC.</p><p>As of Monday, there have been 50,354 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Wuhan, <a href="http://wjw.wuhan.gov.cn/gsgg/202012/t20201230_1583774.shtml">according to the city's health authority</a>, but the CDC report suggests that the number could be at least 480,000.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The results suggest that Wuhan authorities have vastly underreported, or struggled to identify correctly, cases of COVID-19.<img src="https://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5fec633eb7ab82001943e8e2-2400/gettyimages-1216629109.jpg" border="0" alt="airport disinfecting wuhan" data-mce-source="Getty Images" data-mce-caption="Firefighters disinfect the Wuhan Tianhe International Airport on April 3, 2020 in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China."></p><p>The CDC went on to say that the disparity between the high level of infection seen in Wuhan and the low level seen outside Hubei Province shows <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wuhan-china-lifts-covid19-lockdown-2020-4">the 76-day lockdown</a> worked.</p><p>Outside Wuhan, in central Hubei Province, only 0.4% percent of people showed evidence of antibodies. The study said that out of 12,000 people surveyed across six provinces outside Hubei, only two people showed signs of coronavirus antibodies.&nbsp;</p><p>"The epidemic control with Wuhan as the main battlefield has successfully and effectively prevented the large-scale spread of the epidemic," the study said.</p><p>However, Huang Yanzhong, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/wuhan-virus-cases-may-10-081329133.html">told Agence France-Presse</a> that the discrepancy might "point to potential underreporting due to the chaos in late January and early February, when a large number of people were not tested or were not tested accurately for COVID-19."<img src="https://static4.businessinsider.com/image/5fec6350a644880018193c97-2400/2020-10-23T102808Z_2_LYNXMPEG9M06B_RTROPTP_4_KOREANWAR-ANNIVERSARY-CHINA.JPG" border="0" alt="Xi Jinping China" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins" data-mce-caption="Chinese President Xi Jinping at an event for the 70th anniversary of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army's participation in the Korean War, in Beijing, October 23, 2020."></p><p>Throughout the pandemic, China has been accused of covering up the true extent of its outbreak, including by <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-coronavirus-whistleblowers-speak-out-vanish-2020-2">silencing doctors and journalists.</a></p><p>On Monday, Zhang Zhan, a freelance journalist, was jailed for reporting from Wuhan during the onset of the city's outbreak, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-55463241">the BBC said.</a></p><p>An investigation by The Associated Press also found that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-china-hid-pandemic-news-six-days-2020-4">China knew the coronavirus could become a pandemic in mid-January</a>, but for six days claimed publicly that there was no evidence it could spread among humans.</p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-underreported-covid-19-infections-cnn-report-2020-12">China also significantly underreported the number of coronavirus case</a>s in the early stages of the pandemic. On February 10, China reported 2,478 new cases, but officials privately recorded 5,918 new cases, <a href="https://www.google.com/url'sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=newssearch&amp;cd=&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjXnI2d06ztAhURZcAKHV36DKcQxfQBCDIwAA&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2020%2F11%2F30%2Fasia%2Fwuhan-china-covid-intl%2Findex.html%3FsubId3%3Dxid%3Afr1609326622592fbd&amp;usg=AOvVaw1M6yKacBE4plSe7bxif6Wa&amp;xid=fr1609326622592fbd">according to CNN.</a></p><p>A woman from Wuhan <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wuhan-woman-suing-china-for-covering-up-virus-intimidated-2020-9">who is suing the Chinese government</a> for what she said was covering up facts about the coronavirus and allowing it to spread has taken her case to the Supreme Court of Hubei.</p><p>On Monday, outside China, Russia said that its COVID-19 death toll was actually three times higher than stated.</p><p>Tatiana Golikova, Russia's deputy prime minister, said that 81% of 229,700 new deaths recorded between January and November this year were "due to Covid," <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/28/russia-admits-to-world-third-worst-covid-19-death-toll-underreported">the Guardian said.</a></p><p>The update puts Russia's death toll at 186,000, the third-worst in the world.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wuhan-likely-had-10-times-more-covid-cases-china-says-2020-12#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-myths-debunked-wuhan-china-2020-2">Epidemiologists debunk 13 coronavirus myths</a></p>
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