China makes big change to death toll at coronavirus ground zero
China has revised its coronavirus death toll after much speculation from around the world that the country had suppressed its numbers of confirmed cases and fatalities.
Wuhan, in the Chinese province of Hubei and ground zero for the deadly pandemic, has had its death toll increased by 1290 to 3869, according to China Central Television (CCTV), a state owned network.
The total number of confirmed cases in Wuhan was also revised up by 325 to 50,333.
The new numbers take China’s national death toll to 4632 – an increase of 39 per cent.
CCTV attributed a few reasons as to why the numbers were so far off, citing pressure on hospitals and their staff.
“In the early stage of the epidemic, due to insufficient capacity for admission and treatment, a small number of medical institutions failed to connect with the disease prevention and control information system in a timely manner, the hospital was overloaded, and medical staff were busy with treatment,” CCTV states once translated into English.
“Objectively, there were late reports, missed reports, and false positives.”
Wuhan residents had been sceptical of death toll
While it is almost certain the virus originated in Wuhan, the source of the virus remains a mystery, and according to Quartz, even residents within the city were sceptical of the low fatality rate.
At the end of March, Bloomberg reported urns and lines outside of funeral homes in the Chinese province, prompting questions about the true scale of the outbreak.
US President Donald Trump and other US officials previously cast doubt on the official numbers coming out of China, prior to the revision.
“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?” Trump asked.
Fox News claimed on Wednesday that the virus originated in a Wuhan laboratory, not as a bioweapon, but as part of China's effort to demonstrate that its efforts to identify and combat viruses are equal to or greater than the capabilities of the US.
Questions over how virus started in Wuhan
This report and others have suggested that lax safety standards at the Wuhan lab where virology experiments take place led to someone getting infected and appearing at a nearby "wet" market, where the virus began to spread.
Trump said at a press conference at the White House he was aware of the allegations.
“We are doing a very thorough examination of this horrible situation that happened,” he told reporters.
However, on Tuesday, General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said US intelligence indicates the coronavirus likely occurred naturally, as opposed to being created in a laboratory in China, but there is no certainty either way.
The additional numbers come just days after the World Health Organisation was scrutinised for allowing China to reopen wet markets.
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Wuhan went into lockdown in late January after WHO was informed of cases of pneumonia with unknown causes on December 31, 2019.
On April 8, Wuhan’s stringent lockdown was lifted and healthy residents were permitted to travel freely within China.
Just this week, the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 rolled past 2 million worldwide.
Over the past few months the attention has shifted away from China to Italy, Spain and then the US as the countries recorded a massive amount of confirmed cases, eclipsing China.
China’s economy shirks amid outbreak
For the first time since at least 1992, China’s economy has shrunk in the first quarter of 2020, as businesses and factories were forced to close due to the coronavirus outbreak.
China, which is the world’s second largest economies, reported a loss of 6.8 per cent.
On average, China reports a growth of 9 per cent every year, according to the BBC said.
However, the Chinese data and other forecasts that said the world is in its worst recession in decades caused barely a ripple in Asian shares as investors focus instead on whether the pandemic is peaking and how soon governments will start to ease lockdowns which have crippled business and consumer activity.
Retail spending, which supplied 80 per cent of China's economic growth last year, plunged 19 per cent in the first quarter from a year earlier, below most forecasts.
Investment in factories and other fixed assets, the other major growth driver, sank 16.1 per cent.
The ruling Communist Party declared victory over the virus in early March and started reopening factories and offices. But cinemas, hair salons and other businesses deemed nonessential but employ millions of people, are still closed.
with Associated Press and Reuters
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