Coronavirus: China revises Wuhan death toll 50% higher, adds nearly 1,300 fatalities to count

Chinese officials on Friday revised the death toll in Wuhan to include an additional 1,290 fatalities attributed to the novel coronavirus, citing a larger percentage of home deaths than previously counted and overwhelmed health care personnel.

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The new figures boost the death toll in the pandemic’s original epicenter by nearly 50 percent to 3,869, The Washington Post reported.

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Meanwhile, Wuhan’s epidemic and prevention and control headquarters also revised the central Chinese city’s total infection count by 325 confirmed cases to 50,333, or roughly two-thirds of China’s 82,367 acknowledged cases, The Associated Press reported.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency quoted an unidentified headquarters source explaining that during the outbreak’s earliest days “a few medical institutions failed to connect with the disease prevention and control system in time, while hospitals were overloaded and medics were overwhelmed with patients.”

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That insufficiency in admission and treatment capability led to “belated, missed and mistaken reporting,” according to a statement from the news agency.

According to CNN, officials said they revised the figures 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.”

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