China denies report it hid coronavirus outbreak for 6 crucial days. China on April 15 denied hiding early warnings of the coronavirus outbreak after The Associated Press published a report saying Beijing delayed announcing the threat for six key days. There was compelling evidence by late December that the new coronavirus in Wuhan, China, was spreading from person to person, but Chinese officials didn’t take the threat of a significant outbreak seriously until the coronavirus was detected in Thailand on January 13, AP reported, citing leaked internal documents. Top officials in Beijing started secretly preparing for a pandemic on January 14 as the virus spread silently until President Xi Jinping issued a public warning on January 20. Over those six days of silence, more than 3,000 people were infected with the coronavirus, and Wuhan hosted a banquet for tens of thousands of people.