I will defend those having no proper information/ not informed so cannot react to a dangerous situation by telling them what I know.
Understanding the structure would help understand the whole matter.
Information sharing is very bad in China, local government won't report negative news and punish those dare to bypassing them. In my city any of government departments used to be very independent for having no shared information; and even criminal records were not shared across cities. That's China you may not know.
Trust the action guideline in real world practice over the speech/statement in the news.
The major problem caused by all level China governments was the statement: low human-to-human transmission.
However, the *enforced guideline* released for public tell very differently.
It was very strict from the beginning, I guess it was made after known to Beijing, but no idea when they know it.
Note: the party apologize only happened a couple of times in its history.
Strict guidelines we had:
1. N95 Masks are necessary to prevent 90% transmission(yes, because you get it from eye as well, so goggles also needed, and touch surface may lead to touch eye nose mouth also lead to infection)
If no available, get a surgery mask for degraded protection, then N90 level mask; other common masks are not recommanded for the virus protection.
(so I suspect this virus is airborne but no one here agreed with me; also on TV always show medical workers wearing full protection suits that tell us this is extremely contagious)
2. Mass sterilization wherever possible/potential cases being active; one of my neighbour family had visited their bigger family during the spring festival, and later was informed one of their relative got infected. Then the whole doorway got complete sterilization in and out, all open area was sprayed. All buildings lift buttons regularly wiped with ethanol. The family returned after 14 days in quarantine at hospital.
3. Lockdown, after the initial complete lock down for 21/30 days with only purchase of grocery are permitted if no cases found in your residential district; any cases found you may not leave the area, and it is surrounded by Police for 14 days. While there is a shop inside to purchase items from.
After the lockdown, citizens are allowed to go to work, but not if cases found in your residential district, my workmate now sitting next to me had this experience. While we mostly come to work, she wasn't able to leave the district.
(Only selected supermarkets were allowed to open in daytime, also must wear masks to enter- supermarket also sell masks outside. Public transport all stopped. Avoid to talk to other closely were advised, social distance is 2 meters and above while lining up it is 1 meter)
(Insured supply of masks and disinfectant on selected pharmacy, pre-order was necessary. $0.2 per mask, $1 for N95.)
4. Wash hands regularly. Wear gloves.
5. Hospital become a place one wish to go to avoid infection, especially those caring COVID-19 patients.
BTW, the COVID-19 was much more lethal than it is now.
What we Chinese learnt is completely different from the statistics now, it was deadly for all age.
The China death count is far from real for the first few months.
The recent number could be real though because now we are facing a weak COVID-19 from overseas.