Because coronavirus is new, previously when people die of pneumonia, hospital just test whether they've influenza. Now they do posthumous testing on some of the previous death and found coronavirus infection. Of course they've no plan or resource to test all previous deaths, but you can't be certain all of them died purely of influenza now.
Related link: CDC director says some coronavirus-related deaths have been found posthumously
Chinese FM spokeperson's tweet.
As you may know, or more likely not, Fort Detrick is an army lab that handles high-level disease-causing material, such as Ebola, is on hold indefinitely after the CDC found the organization failed to meet biosafety standards.
The CDC sent a cease and desist order in July 2019.
Now there is this petition for information of Fort Detrick to clarify whether its research include new type of coronavirus, in particular, the latest one in the outbreak.
Related link: Fort Detrick lab shut down after failed safety inspection; all research halted indefinitely
