A version of this story appeared in the December 29 edition of CNN's Coronavirus: Fact vs. Fiction newsletter. Since then, the virus has swept the globe, sickening more than 81 million people and killing at least 1.7 million. One thing became clearer on Monday: The scale of the crisis in the original epicenter of the pandemic may have been almost 10 times the official tally of confirmed cases. As of Sunday, Wuhan had reported a total of 50,354 confirmed cases of the virus, according to the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission. The study aimed to estimate the scale of past infections in a population by testing blood serum samples from a pool of people for coronavirus antibodies.

Source: CNN December 29, 2020 12:45 UTC