Chinese authorities revised the death toll in Wuhan on Friday. The death toll was recalculated higher by 50% going from 2,579 to 3,869 as the Guardian reported. The new number comes after experts questioned whether China was understating its tallies and compared them with other smaller countries that have had far higher numbers. The coronavirus pandemic's original center, acknowledged for the first time that they had previously omitted many fatalities, including people who died at home.
"Officials in Wuhan said the newly released numbers now include those who died at home during the beginning of the outbreak, as well as deaths that had not been properly reported by hospitals or registered on death certificates." According to The New York Times.
"The way China counted coronavirus infections actually changed three times in January and February, leading to confusion about what exactly was happening in Wuhan. One area of criticism has been the reluctance to count people who tested positive but were asymptomatic, making it impossible to compare the number of infections with international data, (according to CNN.)"
The city where the outbreak first emerged, states that the government had concealed the extent of the epidemic.
"Officials placed the new tally at 3,869 deaths from the coronavirus in the central Chinese city, an increase of 1,290 from the previous figure. The number of cumulative confirmed infections in the city was also revised upward to 50,333, an increase of 325."
China has been criticized as having initially mismanaged and concealed the extent of the epidemic, though it ultimately swung into action and seemingly tamed the virus. Recently, as other countries have grappled with their own outbreaks, Chinese officials have come under even greater pressure to explain how exactly the epidemic unfolded in Wuhan.
