I read the whole article...something that stuck out and concerned me—
“a reporter in Hong King found many provinces and cities had begun subtracting confirmed cases from the records the last few days. The move happened because the National Health and Medical Commission apparently changed the definition of what constitutes a “confirmed” case. Patients who test positive but have no confirmed symptoms will no longer be counted. The disguise prevented the public from knowing the actual number of infections”
>> Patients who test positive but have no confirmed symptoms will no longer be counted.<<
That would make sense if you look at the rate of increase in the various provinces. Cases are now increasing only 4 or 5% per day, compared to the 15-20% that cases were increasing in Hubai province until recently.
Xi announced at a health meeting on Feb 3 that the outbreak had to be brought under control. Immediately after that, reported cases outside of Hubai started to decelerate. And one province has over 1,000 cases, but zero deaths (and nearly 200 recoveries.)
And in Hubai province the 2500 to 3000 new case per day could be just the tip of the iceburg. That might be the upper limit on how many they can test per day, for instance.
I doubt the numbers being reported for China bear any semblance to reality on the ground, but with social media so severely restricted in all of China, it will be difficult to tell how bad the situation is.