Wuhan Adds 1,290 'missed' Virus Deaths To The Tally

Authorities in Wuhan on Friday abruptly raised its death toll by 50 percent to a total of 3,869, admitting that many cases were "mistakenly reported" or missed entirely in an admission that comes amid growing global doubts about transparency on the mainland.

The city government said in a social media posting that it had added 1,290 deaths to the tally in Wuhan, where the global pandemic emerged.

The Hubei province's capital has suffered the vast majority of the mainland fatalities from Covid-19.

The change in Wuhan figures also pushes the nationwide death toll up by nearly 39 percent to 4,632, based on official national data released earlier on Friday. 

Beijing has come under increasing pressure over the coronavirus pandemic from Western powers led by the United States, which has raised doubts about Chinese transparency and is probing whether the virus actually originated in a Wuhan laboratory.

The mainland had indicated that the virus emerged from a Wuhan food market whose merchandise reportedly included exotic wild animals sold for human consumption.

Wuhan's epidemic prevention and control headquarters cited several reasons for the missed cases, including the fact that the city's medical staff were overwhelmed in the early days as infections climbed, leading to "late reporting, omissions or mis-reporting".

It also cited insufficient testing and treatment facilities, and said some patients died at home and thus their deaths were not properly reported.

Earlier this month, Wuhan lifted a lockdown that had paralysed the city of 11 million for more than two months in a drastic effort to contain the virus.

On Thursday, state television reported that President Xi Jinping had approved the withdrawal of 4,000 army medical personnel from Hubei. (AFP, Reuters)

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