Did communist China know in Mary 2019 that there was a new virus? They were ordering a lot of PCR tests at that time. The distance from Hubei to Wuhan is 8 kilometers (5 miles in air distance).
Purchases of PCR tests in China’s Hubei Province surged months before the first official reports of a novel coronavirus case there. That is according to a report by Australia-based cybersecurity company Internet 2.0, Nikkei reports.
About 67.4 million yuan ($10.5 million at current rates) was spent on PCR tests in Hubei during 2019. That is nearly double the 2018 total, with the upswing starting in May, according to the report.
Internet 2.0 collected and analyzed data from a website that aggregates information on public procurement bids in China. The analysis team consists of former officials from intelligence agencies in the U.S., the U.K., Australia, and other countries.
Orders doubled from universities, jumped fivefold from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and surged tenfold from animal testing bureaus. Purchases from hospitals declined by more than 10%.
Monthly procurement data shows a spike in orders in May, especially from CDC buyers and the People’s Liberation Army.
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