China raises Wuhan coronavirus death toll by 1,290 - an increase of 50%

  • Video report by ITV News Asia Correspondent Debi Edward

The central Chinese city of Wuhan has revised its coronavirus death toll to 3,869, increasing the number of fatalities by 1,290.

Chinese state media said on Friday that the original undercount was due to the insufficient admission capabilities of overwhelmed medical facilities during the outbreak’s peak.

The number of total cases in the city of 11 million people was also raised by 325 to 50,333, accounting for about two-thirds of China’s total 82,367 announced cases.

The official Xinhua News Agency quoted an unidentified official within Wuhan’s epidemic and prevention and control headquarters as saying that, “due to the insufficiency in admission and treatment capability, a few medical institutions failed to connect with the disease prevention and control system in time, while hospitals were overloaded and medics were overwhelmed with patients.

“As a result, belated, missed and mistaken reporting occurred,” the official was quoted as saying.

Questions have long swirled around the accuracy of China’s case reporting, with Wuhan in particular going several days in January without reporting new cases or deaths.

That has led to accusations that Chinese officials were seeking to minimise the impact of the outbreak and wasting opportunities to bring it under control in a shorter time.

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