China adds nearly 1,300 coronavirus deaths to official Wuhan toll, blaming reporting delays

China has denied covering up the true extent of the coronavirus outbreak after releasing new figures that increase the death toll in Wuhan by 50 per cent.

The death toll for Wuhan now stands at 3,869 after China added 1,290 to the tally. It came as the number of infections increased retrospectively by 325, pushing the overall count to 50,333, according to a government statement posted online.

Officials said the revision was due to overwhelmed hospitals and medical staff, which meant some people died at home after being unable to be admitted. The surge of patients also meant delayed or missed reports about infections and deaths.

The change to data will likely seed further doubt about the accuracy of figures reported by the Chinese government, which has already been questioned by politicians and officials in the US and UK.

US intelligence officials have concluded that China concealed the extent of the outbreak and under-reported the infection and death count.

The consequence of China’s potentially suppressed figures, and scientific data released, is that it impacted what countries understood about the pandemic and the risks involved, along with how nations prepared their emergency responses.

On the ground in Wuhan, many also doubt the figures, but are unsure what the real numbers are. Globally, the coronavirus has infected more than 2.16 million people, killing nearly 146,000.

“The government can’t possibly tell the truth to the public,” said a taxi driver in Wuhan. “But as long as they know themselves, it’s fine. You see in America, it’s so high; they are reporting the real statistics.”

At the peak, there were 5,000 bodies waiting for urgent cremation at one of Wuhan’s eight crematoriums, a worker told the Telegraph – a far cry from about two dozen per day before the outbreak.

Families who lost loved ones to what doctors strongly hinted was the coronavirus, but were never tested, were not included in the official death toll. It’s unclear whether Friday’s revision captures some of those figures.

China has denied these charges, insisting it has been transparent. But multiple revisions to how it confirmed cases – leading to a one-day record spike of almost 15,000 new cases – have added to concerns that the figures don’t represent the true scale of the outbreak.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian acknowledged that the virus's rapid spread had contributed to undercounting, but added "there has never been any concealment, and we'll never allow any concealment."

Case numbers also only began to subside after China – yet again – changed how it would count infections.

The latest data change in Wuhan is significant, and puts China’s nationwide death toll at 4,636. But the count remains low compared to other nations – seven countries, including the US and UK, have far more fatalities. Italy has recorded the highest number of deaths in the world at more than 22,000 people.

"The new figures are still not credible," says Steve Tsang, director of SOAS China Institute. "The Wuhan death toll is out of line with that in countries where Covid-19 took hold, and it is still out of line with likely excess death in the city."

Five million people left Wuhan left the city before lockdown measures were implemented, meaning the death toll would be 40 per cent lower than if the city was at full occupancy. However, Mr Tsang says that the monthly death rate is still lower than would be expected in a city of six million, even with the revised numbers.

"The statistics have been changed most probably because the old figures were so ridiculous that even the Communist Party Propaganda Department knows it was unsustainable.  Hence, a revision to a level less incredible, but one that will still present the Party under Xi as having done a vastly better job that Western democratic governments."

However, other countries are also adjusting their numbers. Ben Cowling, an epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong says: “That happens everywhere – we’ve seen that other countries have been revising their numbers from time to time.”

“I think we still don’t know the full picture of mild infections in Wuhan, because in the early stages of the epidemic, the testing was focused on more severe cases,” he added.

Experts say a new round of testing beginning in Wuhan, which will seek to determine how many people developed antibodies, or effective immunity against the virus, is likely to give a much better picture of infection rates.x

Read more: Wuhan's hidden death toll - My week of tests, suspicion and threats in trying to uncover the truth