China’s foreign ministry has been defending the state’s approach after Wuhan’s prevention and control taskforce revised the coronavirus death toll in the Chinese city upwards by 50% – from 2,579 to 3,869.
The ministry said authorities had conducted a “statistical verification” of its Covid-19 toll to ensure accuracy in what it said was a common international practice, Reuters reports.
There had never been a cover-up of the figures around the outbreak, the ministry added.
Citing the number of patients who had died at home before reaching hospital, as well as late and inaccurate reporting, Wuhan’s taskforce on virus prevention and control had said earlier: “Every loss of life during the epidemic is not just a source of sorrow for their family, but for the city as well. We would like to send our sincere sympathies to the family members.”
Featured image: Medical staff transfer patients to Jin Yintan hospital on January 17, 2020 in Wuhan, Hubei, China. Local authorities have confirmed that a second person in the city has died of a pneumonia-like virus since the outbreak started in December. (Photo by Getty Images)