UPDATE: Following our announcement, the Montenegrin media CDM, RTCG, Portal Analitika, Antena M, Pobjeda, FOS Media and Kolektiv have corrected the information and announced that China has not officially declared the end of the epidemic.
Numerous Montenegrin and regional portals have announced today that China has declared the end of the coronavirus epidemic outbreak. The news, according to the comments, made many citizens happy, but unfortunately it is not true.
Montenegrin portals Analitika, IN4S, CDM, RTCG, Pobjeda, PV informer, Antena M, FOS Media, Kodex, Kolektiv and Standard published the identical news – “China has declared end of epidemic outbreak”, referring to Banja Luka ATV. The information states that the spread of COVID-19 virus in China has stopped completely, and that the number of confirmed cases of infection is less than 3,000.
The portals transmitted a statement by the spokesman of the National Health Commission, Mi Feng.
On the other hand, the world media, including the Reuters, the New York Times, the US News, as well as China’s Sinhua.net portal, have published more complete information in which there were no words of the end of epidemic, but rather the emergence of new imported cases of coronavirus in China. It is also claimed that the risk of a second wave of infection is increased at the moment when transmission among China’s local population has actually stopped because the number of those infected has fallen below 3,000.
Also, these media have published a complete quote of Feng’s statement.
“China had an accumulated total of 693 imported cases entering from 42 countries, which meant the possibility of a new round of infections remains relatively big”.
It is stated that the virus is brought mainly to China by its nationals residing abroad, and that 45 new cases were registered on Saturday, down by 9 on the previous day.
This case only confirms that in these especially sensitive days, when we are all waiting for encouraging news, the media should pay extra attention and verify completely all the information.