Wuhan mayor, Zhou Xianwang, has been receiving a lot of flak for the way the city responded to the coronavirus outbreak

Wuhan

He's been repeating this line since a few days ago, saying that the city's warnings "were not sufficient" but it is because they "didn't know how serious" the situation is. His comments to Chinese state media from last week:

"From the perspective of continued understanding of the situation, it is only at this time that everyone realises it is so dangerous. If we knew at first from the virus spread that it would be so serious, finding effective control and prevention methods of course would be good, but the problem is usually we cannot realise the severity from the outset."

Update: He now says that he would be willing to resign as a form of apology if it helps to contain the spread of the virus. I guess admitting to his own lack of proficiency and outright saying that means that he is likely not to resign. Pfft.