China denies covering up COVID-19 death toll as it revises Wuhan’s fatality figure up by 50 percent

The Chinese government on Friday raised the official coronavirus death toll in Wuhan by 50 percent, giving more credence to claims the country may have lied to the world about its death toll from the disease.

However, China has denied editing its official death toll for political purposes.

Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the coronavirus first emerged late last year, admitted people died at home and cases were missed as hospitals struggled to cope in the early days of the outbreak.

In the new revised figures, the Wuhan city government increased the death toll by 1,290 – about 50 percent – bringing the total in Wuhan to 3,869 and the number of deaths across China to 4,632.

Chinese State-controlled Xinhua News Agency quoted an unidentified official in Wuhan’s epidemic and prevention and control headquarters as saying mistaken reporting occurred during the outbreak.

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“A surging number of patients at the early stage of the pandemic overwhelmed medical resources and the admission capacity of medical institutions,” the Wuhan Municipal Headquarters for COVID-19 Epidemic Prevention and Control, said in a statement posted to the news agency.

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