China’s Wuhan raises coronavirus death toll by 50% citing early lapses

The Chinese city of Wuhan raised its death toll from the novel coronavirus by 50% on Friday, bringing its total to 3,869, amid doubts about the accuracy of China’s data on the disease as global cases mount.

Reflecting the additional deaths in Wuhan, China revised up its national death toll later on Friday to 4,632.

“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,” state broadcaster CGTN quoted an unidentified Wuhan official as saying.