Coronavirus Death Toll In Wuhan, China Increases By 50% After Revision

After revising the number of coronavirus-related deaths in Wuhan, Chinese officials raised the amount of fatalities in the virus’ origin city from 2,579 to 3,869 deaths. Wuhan also reported a revised total of 50,333 confirmed cases, after adding 325 new cases to their records. Officials published their revisions of Wuhan’s figures only after China’s National Health Commission had already reported a total of 3,342 deaths across the nation. The revisions in Wuhan were made because early reports did not accurately represent the real number of cases and related deaths.

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These 1,290 added deaths were not initially included because the early stages of the pandemic saw some patients dying at home, and overwhelmed health care workers were more focused on treating cases and saving lives rather than reporting deaths. These revisions are intended to show “accountability to history, to the people and the victims,” as well as to ensure “open and transparent disclosure of information and data accuracy.” China had previously altered the way cases were officially logged into the system three separate times earlier in the year, creating unnecessary confusion about the severity of the crisis in the country. There were also concerns from experts about the exclusion of patients from official recorded cases who had tested positive but did not show symptoms.