The following is an article that appeared in the Sankei Shimbun on October 8.
China increases procurement of PCR equipment from before Corona
(Washington, D.C. - Kyodo)
An Australia- and U.S.-based cybersecurity firm released a report on October 5 showing that Hubei Province, home to Wuhan, China, where the first large-scale infection of the new coronavirus was reported, had seen a sharp increase in procurement contracts for PCR testing equipment since May 2019.
The report pointed out that the spread of the disease may have occurred well before the end of December of the same year when China first reported the case to the World Health Organization (WHO).
However, the expert pointed out to Bloomberg that PCR tests are widely used to detect pathogens other than the new Corona, and the procurement of equipment has been on the rise for some time.
The company that compiled the report said it was cautious about the connection with the spread of the new corona infection.
The company that compiled the report is "Internet 2.0," which includes former intelligence officers from the U.S., Britain, and Australia.
It examined procurement contracts from 2007 to 2019 published on the Chinese government's website.
According to the report, procurement contracts for PCR testing equipment in Hubei province nearly doubled from 36.7 million yuan ($636 million) in 2018 to 67.4 million yuan in 2019.
The report concluded that "if the virus were drought in Wuhan, it would have spread in the summer of 2019, definitely in the early fall."
