China’s Wuhan coronavirus death toll climbs by 50% after revision

The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus outbreak first emerged, has updated the number of confirmed cases and deaths in the city, around 50 percent surge from previous confirmed figures.

The revision followed “a city-wide investigation,” Chinese state media reported.

The Wuhan government said on Friday total confirmed cases in the city have been revised to 50,333, an increase of 325 cases. The cumulative number of deaths from the coronavirus is now 3,869, an increase of 1,290 compared to its previous count, according to CNBC’s translation of a Chinese language report by Xinhua News Agency.

Following the Wuhan government’s revision, China’s National Health Commission stated that the total number of fatalities in mainland China has been revised from 3,342 to 4,632, while the total confirmed infections have been revised from 82,367 to 82,692.

Xinhua posted a notice from the Wuhan government as it listed four explanations for the discrepancy in the city’s data.

First, the notice said that a surge of patients in the early stage of the outbreak had resulted in a shortage of medical resources and inadequacy in the city’s treatment capacity. That caused deaths of some patients at home

Second, hospitals were overwhelmed, which caused a delay, missing, or erroneous reporting of cases and deaths, the notice added.

Third, given the vast network of healthcare institutions that took part in treating patients with the coronavirus, some were unable to provide timely updates about the cases they were handling.

Fourth and finally, registration of some deaths was either repeated or misreported, the notice said.