Wuhan's coronavirus death toll jumps by 50 percent after authorities revise count

Officials in China have revised their official coronavirus death toll, adding more than 1,000 fatalities in Wuhan.

Chinese officials on Friday reported 1,290 additional coronavirus deaths in Wuhan, meaning the death toll in the city where the virus first appeared has jumped about 50 percent to 3,869, CNN reports. Additionally, 325 confirmed COVID-19 cases were added to Wuhan's official count, bringing the total confirmed cases in the city, which has ended its lockdown, to 50,333.

A Wuhan official explained this increase by saying that "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," The Hill reports. Officials also said deaths from COVID-19 at home were also added, The New York Times reports.

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But Reuters notes this comes after "widespread speculation" that the official death toll in Wuhan was significantly higher than was being reported. The U.S. intelligence community concluded in a classified report to the White House in March that China was underreporting its coronavirus deaths and cases, Bloomberg reports, and this week, President Trump asked "does anybody really believe" the numbers being reported from "this vast country called China." The Associated Press also recently reported that for six all-important days after Beijing started preparing for a pandemic, it kept the public in the dark as Wuhan "hosted a mass banquet for tens of thousands of people" and "millions began traveling through for Lunar New Year celebrations."

"They are on the defensive, clearly," Hong Kong Baptist University political science professor Jean-Pierre Cabestan told the Times. "It's an uphill battle now for China to improve its image." Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Friday, "there has never been any cover-up and we do not allow cover-ups."