Early missteps and state secrecy in China allowed the coronavirus to spread farther and fast
BEIJING — It was almost the Lunar New Year and Pan Chuntao was feeling festive.
He knew there were reports of a virus in his city, Wuhan. But local officials urged calmness. There was no evidence it was transmitted person to person, they said. They had not reported a new case in days.
On Jan. 16, the 76-year-old left his two-bedroom apartment to attend a government-organized fair.
“We told him not to go because we saw some rumors on WeChat of doctors getting infected,” said Pan’s son-in-law, Zhang Siqiang. “But he insisted on going. He said, ‘The government says it’s not a problem, there are no cases anymore.’ ”
Pan and his daughter may now be among the nearly 12,000 people infected with a new strain of coronavirus — an outbreak that has killed at least 259 people in China, spread to more than 20 countries, disrupted the global economy and left 55 million people in China’s Hubei province under an unprecedented lockdown.
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