It's more about not wanting to take responsibility at all levels than not knowing it. Though party mouthpieces love this angle to spin the supreme leader as kin

It's more about not wanting to take responsibility at all levels than not knowing it. Though party mouthpieces love this angle to spin the supreme leader as kind-hearted whenever possible. Cersorship serves to make the people feel good, but general hospitals are almost all state-owned thus the infomation flow is not that impeded. The system punishes those who take risks (right or wrong) and rewards those who obey orders, display loyalty and don't make mistakes. In this case, low level officials waited for orders, the national level agency went to the site fairly early on but they too waited, here's the catch, high officials and Xi don't want to make mistakes too. The power dynamics were on display when the governor knew he's about to be sacrificed so he went on a high profile live interview to accuse Beijing of inaction, couple days later, Xi released his own version of the story, replaced the local boss with his old sport, gaining even tighter grip on local governments. Every body in this system avoids doing things with the slightest possibility of harming their political careers, but doubles down on the things that make them politically safe (heavy-handed/draconian lockdown measures).