China “concealed the work of the” Bat Woman “scientist who unlocked the coronavirus gene”

China is accused of concealing the findings of a coronavirus expert, known as “Bat Woman,” after she quickly identified the genetic makeup of the new strain that has infected millions.

The Wuhan-based virologist Shi Zhengli is one of the world’s leading coronavirus researchers and has discovered dozens of deadly SARS-like viruses in bat caves.

He studied samples taken from some of the first people to become infected with the mysterious new respiratory illness in China in December and found that it was similar to SARS.

It was identified as a new coronavirus and within three days completed its gene sequencing, discovering that it was 96 percent identical to a virus found in horseshoe bats in Yunnan.

But she was “speechless” and her team was ordered not to reveal any information about the new disease, which was already spreading rapidly as China kept the world in the dark.

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The claims are the latest to emerge after a cover-up by Chinese authorities who did not share information or issue warnings from the start, and ultimately contain a virus that emerged in Wuhan and then spread across the world, causing tens of thousands of deaths. and over a million confirmed infections.

Chinese journalist Gao Yu said he spoke to Shi during his imprisonment in Wuhan, which was closed for more than two months, and she told him that his findings had been silenced, the Mail reported Sunday.

The journalist added: “We found out after his institute finished gene sequencing and related tests as early as January 2, but it was silenced.”

Information on gene sequencing was not released until a week later.

The day the genetic information was mapped, Yanyi Wang, director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, ordered the staff not to disclose any information about the disease, it is claimed.

After local doctors were detained for warning locals about the virus, the director claimed that “inappropriate and inaccurate information” was causing “general panic.”

She instructed the staff not to post any information on social media or speak to the media.

Just over a week later, a Shanghai team posted a sequence on an open-access platform after studying samples from an infected patient.

His laboratory was closed for “rectification” two days later.

One of the first cases of Covid-19 emerged in mid-December when a patient, working at a wildlife market in Wuhan that became the first epicenter of the outbreak, was hospitalized with a double lung infection in the city in the central china.

The usual treatment for flu-like illness did not work and new cases soon emerged.

On December 27, Wuhan health officials were told that the disease was being caused by a new coronavirus.

Three days later, at least two Wuhan doctors, Li Wenliang and Ai Fen, shared information about the new virus on the WeChat social network.

Li, a whistleblower who was warned by police to stop “making false comments,” died in February after contracting the virus.

Ai is missing after giving interviews to media outlets criticizing China’s censorship and hospital authorities for suppressing the early warnings of the outbreak.

She told Chinese magazine Renwu or People that she was reprimanded after alerting her bosses and colleagues to the new virus in December.

On December 30, he received laboratory results of a case that read: “SARS coronavirus.”

The next day, Wuhan officials confirmed nearly 30 cases, closed the wildlife market, and notified the local World Health Organization office of the mysterious disease.

New cases continued to emerge and the outbreak spread outside of China, but for a week in January health officials in Wuhan insisted that they had received no new patients.

During that time, the first known case outside of China was detected in Thailand, and one case was reported in the US. USA When infected people left Wuhan and the surrounding Hubei province to travel across the country and around the world.

Chinese authorities insisted that they had seen no “clear evidence” that the virus could be transmitted from human to human.

By then they had lost control and hospitals were overwhelmed by the increasing number of infected patients.

Within days, Dr. Zhong Nanshan, the country’s leading respiratory expert and the face of his containment effort, revealed that human transmission was taking place.

Wuhan and several other cities struggling to contain the virus were blocked on January 23, days before the Lunar New Year holiday, but by then millions of people had left without being examined.

That day, Shi Zhengli and his research team published their data identifying the disease on a scientific portal before it was published in February by the medical journal Nature.

In the weeks following the blockade in Wuhan, the virus spread rapidly to and within other countries due to imported cases and community transmission.

Throughout the outbreak, China has been accused of failing to report its total number of infections.

As of Sunday morning, more than 82,000 confirmed cases were reported in mainland China, the sixth highest total in the world, along with 3,339 deaths.

Meanwhile, life slowly begins to return to normal in Wuhan after its blockade was lifted after more than 70 days.

China is now stepping up detection of incoming foreigners and tightening border control after the record-setting number of imported coronavirus cases in a single day, helping to double the daily number of newly detected infections.

New confirmed cases in mainland China hit 99 on Saturday from 46 the day before, and all but two involved travelers from abroad.

In Shanghai, 51 Chinese citizens flying on the same flight from Russia tested positive.

“The risk of imported cases has increased dramatically,” Wen Guohui, mayor of Guangzhou, an economic center in southern China, said at a news conference.

Guangzhou is applying anti-virus measures to anyone who enters the city from across the national border, regardless of nationality, race, or gender, foreign affairs official Liu Baochun said at the same event.

“We hope that foreigners can strictly adhere to anti-virus rules as the Chinese do,” he said.

The north-eastern city of Harbin will implement a 28-day quarantine measure for all those arriving from abroad, its government announced.

People entering the capital of Heilongjiang province on the Russian border will be held in a quarantine center for 14 days at first, followed by another 14 days at home, he added.

They will also undergo two nucleic acid tests and one antibody test.

The government will also block residential units with confirmed and asymptomatic cases of coronavirus for 14 days, he added.

The city of Suifenhe, also on the Russian border, said it was strengthening controls as part of measures to prevent imported cases.

It has banned all kinds of meetings and has drawn up a list of businesses to be suspended from operations.