Wuhan ups Covid-19 death toll by 50%
The Chinese city of Wuhan hiked its death toll from the novel coronavirus by 50% on Friday, bringing the total to 3,869, state-run TV reported, confirming residents' worst fears amid rising international doubts about Beijing's handling of the outbreak.
The central city where the virus first appeared in humans late last year added another 1,290 victims on top of the 2,579 previously counted as of Thursday, reflecting incorrect reporting, delays and omissions, CCTV reported.
The revisions follow widespread speculation that Wuhan's death toll was significantly higher than reported, rumours fuelled by images of long queues of family members waiting to collect ashes of victims and reports of thousands of empty urns stacked at a single funeral home.
"In the early stage, due to limited hospital capacity and the shortage of medical staff, a few medical institutions failed to connect with local disease control and prevention systems in a timely manner, which resulted in delayed reporting of confirmed cases and some failures to count patients accurately," state broadcaster CGTN quoted an unidentified Wuhan official as saying.
Suspicion that China has not been transparent about the outbreak has risen in recent days, with US President Donald Trump on Wednesday expressing scepticism about the country's previously declared death toll of about 3,000.
“Do you really believe those numbers in this vast country called China, and that they have a certain number of cases and a certain number of deaths; does anybody really believe that?” he said.
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