A massive pool party attended by thousands of people at the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic showed how well China had dealt with the disease, authorities insisted Thursday, despite images from the event prompting outrage around the world.
Pictures and videos of the weekend electronic music party in Wuhan – were Covid-19 first emerged in Dec 2019 – have gone viral, attracting a huge negative response in places were lockdown are still in effect.
The headline “Life’s a beach in Wuhan as World pays virus price” – splashed across the front page of Australia’s Daily Telegraph – was typical of some mainstream news headlines, while some comments on social media sites were more colourfully Frank.
One Twitter user called the event “incredibly irresponsible,” while another suggested there was “no way it would not lead to more cases of coronavirus.”
China’s Nationalists Global Times newspaper hit back against what it called “sour grapes” abroad.
Afp’s video of the event has been viewed more than 16 million times since it was posted.
