Wuhan, the Chinese city which had been the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, revised its death toll from 1,290 to 9,869—a 50 per cent increase from its previous count.
Authorities explained the new count by saying that hospitals at the beginning of the outbreak were overwhelmed and therefore, cases were being incorrectly reported, delayed or omitted. As per a Xinhua report, the numbers were revised post a city-wide investigation. An important factor that caused the discrepancy, according to authorities, was that as there was inadequate treatment capacity in the initial stages of the outbreak, many patients ended up dying at home.
As per the authorities, registration of some deaths was either repeated or misreported and overwhelmed hospitals were not able to provide timely reports regarding the number of deaths at their institutions.
The Chinese government had already come under fire from the international media for misinformation during the outbreak of the pandemic. US President Trump has said that the world is paying a ‘big price’ as China did not share timely information about the virus.
There have been reports that medical professionals who wanted to oust news about the virus were silenced or detained by government authorities.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV quoted the special government operation team overseeing epidemic containment efforts in Wuhan as saying, “Coronavirus figures not only concern people’s health and lives but also the credibility of the government. The revision of the figures not only protects citizens’ rights… it also shows the government’s respect for each individual”.
As per the state broadcaster’s report, extrapolating from their experiences of long queues at city hospitals, residents feel that the number of actual cases and deaths might be higher than those reported.
