This archive report was first published on 17 May 2020.
China has largely brought the coronavirus under control after months of lockdowns and travel curbs, but fears of a second wave have risen as clusters have emerged in northeast provinces and in the central city of Wuhan.
According to Zhong Nanshan, the public face of the government's response to the pandemic, the majority of Chinese people are still susceptible to Covid-19 infection due to a lack of immunity.
“The majority of Chinese at the moment are still susceptible of the Covid-19 infection, because (of) a lack of immunity,” Zhong told CNN on May 17, 2020.
As a result, China is facing a big challenge, with Zhong stating that it's not better than foreign countries at the moment.
Zhong, who helped expose the scale of the 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), also accused authorities in Wuhan of under-reporting cases during the early days of the pandemic.
“The local authorities, they didn’t like to tell the truth at that time,” Zhong said.
However, he added that he believed data published after Wuhan was locked down in late January, and when the central government took control of the response, “will be correct”.
The novel coronavirus has killed at least 309,296 people, according to official sources, with scientists racing to find a vaccine.
Zhong cautioned that a “perfect” vaccine for a disease that the World Health Organization (WHO) says may never disappear could take “years”.
