The number of reported cases in China is pretty much unanimously understood to be dramatically undercounted because there is simply a tremendous shortage of testing kits. There are videos showing nurses in Wuhan hospitals bemoaning this and social media posts suggesting this, patients are being turned away unless they are dying to go home and self isolate and rest, in some cases receiving injections daily but otherwise being told to return home.

Firsthand accounts by local journalists are one of the best ways we have to understand what's actually going on behind the Great Firewall of journalism.

One of the best is this semi-celebrity lawyer/journalist in Wuhan who is leaking video to YouTube visiting the outbreak hospitals (he's also pretty much a wanted man at this point by Chinese authorities), you can turn on subtitles for English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AI3R41dGnU&ab_channel=Coron...