WHO Says China Actions Blunted Virus Spread, Leading to Drop

China’s unprecedented lockdown and restrictions blunted the coronavirus’s spread and averted hundreds of thousands of infection cases, according to a team of medical experts that visited the outbreak’s epicenter last week.

While multiple revisions to the official data from Hubei have raised questions about whether the decline in China’s new cases should be trusted, the 80% drop “is real,” Bruce Aylward, an assistant director-general at the World Health Organization, said at a briefing in Beijing. He cited anecdotal evidence the team observed in Wuhan, including fewer patients crowding hospitals and consulting doctors for fevers.