just because cell phones are cancelled doesn't mean anything
It's possible that some migrant workers had two cell phone numbers before. One is from their hometown, and the other is from the city they work in. In February, they might close the number in the city they work in because they couldn't go there."
It is possible that these workers may have gone to their home city for the Chinese New Year and after the travel ban, they did not get a chance to come back to China. It should be noted that in China there is a basic monthly fee to hold a cell phone account and the majority of migrant workers, who belong to the lowest income group, likely only have one cell phone account.
The economic downturn caused by the outbreak could have forced the Chinese people, who have two cell phones to cancel one of them.
Just think in North america how many people had a work phone that has now been disconnected due to layoffs, or people cancelling a second line
Thanks for the critical thinking. I'm glad you posted that. Not saying whether this is true or not, but I can appreciate a logical approach.