China's coronavirus ground-zero city of Wuhan on Friday abruptly raised its death toll by 50 percent, saying many fatal cases were “mistakenly reported” or missed entirely – in an admission that comes amid growing global doubts about Chinese transparency.
But China denied it had covered up the extent of its coronavirus outbreak, in response to rising questions from Western powers led by the United States.
A foreign ministry spokesman acknowledged that the virus’ rapid spread had contributed to undercounting that resulted in China raising its death toll earlier Friday, but he added “there has never been any concealment, and we’ll never allow any concealment.”
The city government of Wuhan said in a social media posting that it had added 1,290 deaths to the tally in Wuhan, where the global pandemic emerged in December 2019 and which has suffered the vast majority of China’s fatalities from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. That brings the total number of deaths in the city to 3,869.
Late reporting, mis-reporting
The change also pushes the nationwide death toll up by nearly 39 percent to 4,632, based on official national data released earlier on Friday.
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.
US gradual reopening
President coronavirus outbreak on Thursday (Friday in Manila) laid out guidelines for a gradual reopening of the United States after the battering of the coronavirus pandemic, saying normal life should resume quickly in some states.
Trump’s new push came as he saw progress in his campaign to pressure China, with fellow Western leaders agreeing that Beijing had not been transparent on the origins of the virus that has infected more than 2.1 million people.
Facing re-election in November, Trump has been impatient to lift a lockdown that has thrown 22 million people out of work in the world’s largest economy, although plenty of leaders at home and abroad fear that hastily easing restrictions will cause more people to die.
The United States accounts for the most COVID-19 deaths of any country, with almost 33,000 of the nearly 144,000 fatalities worldwide.
China under pressure
French President Emmanuel Macron warned not to be “naive” in believing China had handled the outbreak well.
“There are clearly things that have happened that we don’t know about,” he said in an interview with the Financial Times.
The Washington Post and Fox News reported there were growing suspicions the virus in fact slipped out of a sensitive laboratory in Wuhan that studied bats, blamed for the SARS coronavirus outbreak in 2003.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said China should have been more transparent about the laboratory.
‘Blame game unproductive’
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone and called efforts to blame Beijing counterproductive.
Xi called attempts to politicize the pandemic “detrimental to international cooperation” and Putin denounced “attempts by some people to smear China,” according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian – who previously outraged the United States by spreading an unfounded theory that US troops introduced the coronavirus in Wuhan – quoted the World Health Organization as saying there was no evidence the virus came from a lab.
Slow return to normal
After weeks on strict lockdowns, hard-hit Spain and Italy have begun to ease restrictions.
In Venice, residents in mandatory face masks enjoyed quiet streets and canals that once thronged with selfie-stick wielding tourists.
“I bought many books,” Venetian Catrina said after visiting one of the city’s bookshops, which were allowed to reopen this week.
Switzerland announced that some shops and services – including beauty salons – will be allowed to resume business from April 27.
Germany also announced steps to reopen some shops and gradually restart schools, Denmark began reopening schools for younger children and Finland lifted a blockade of Helsinki.
Guterres’ appeal
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres issued an appeal to protect the world’s youngest, warning that a staggering 310 million children relied on schools – many now closed – for daily nutrition.
“With the global recession gathering pace, there could be hundreds of thousands of additional child deaths in 2020,” Guterres warned.
Face masks distributed
Japan began distributing reusable cloth face masks on Friday dubbed “Abenomasks” after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose decision to issue two per household has been met with mockery by some.
Abe announced the measure on April 1 as part of a wider package of emergency policies to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, saying the delivery of cloth masks would help ease a nationwide shortage.
But the decision attracted ridicule, particularly given the scanty size of the coverings. They sit over a much smaller portion of the face than disposable surgical masks that have become ubiquitous in Japan in recent months.