China's revised COVID figures are a bid to 'leave no case undocumented': WHO

By Stephanie Nebehay and Michael Shields

 

FILE PHOTO: A logo is pictured on the headquarters of the World Health Organization (WHO) ahead of a meeting of the Emergency Committee on the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in Geneva, Switzerland, January 30, 2020. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

 

GENEVA/ZURICH (Reuters) - A sharp upward revision in China's coronavirus death toll on Friday was "an attempt to leave no case undocumented" after medical services in Wuhan were overwhelmed at the start of the outbreak, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

 

Nearly 1,300 people who died of the coronavirus in the Chinese city of Wuhan, or half the total, were not counted in death tolls because of lapses, state media said on Friday, but Beijing dismissed claims that there had been any kind of cover-up.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump has suggested that China has understated its toll of coronavirus deaths, and has condemned the WHO for the support it has given to China's approach in the crisis. He suspended funding to the U.N. agency this week.

 

The virus has infected more than two million worldwide and killed 150,000, according to a Reuters tally.

 

Maria van Kerkhove, a WHO epidemiologist who took part in an international mission to China in February, said of China's revised figures: "This was done in attempt to leave no case undocumented."

 

She said the Chinese authorities had gone back over data from funeral services, care homes, fever clinics, hospitals and detention centres, and patients who had died at home, in Wuhan, Hubei province where the outbreak began late last year.

 

"What they have reported is that the discrepancies in these cases were due to a number of factors. First is that the health care system in Wuhan was overwhelmed at one point. And some patients died at home," van Kerkhove said.

 

"Secondly is that medical staff were delayed in reporting of these cases because they were focused on providing care for those patients and they didn't fill out the forms in time," she said.

 

Mild cases were treated in makeshift hospitals in Wuhan stadiums or other facilities, van Kerkhove said, adding: "In those situations the reporting wasn't done in a timely manner and so those cases were added."

 

It was important to know the number of people who had died from the disease and to have "accurate reporting", which can be a challenge during an outbreak, she said.

 

"I would anticipate that many countries are going to be in a similar situation where they will have to go back and review records and look to see did we capture all of them," she said.

 

Dr. Mike Ryan, WHO's top emergencies expert, said: "It is important that countries provide that data as quickly as they can in the interest of moving our collective efforts forward to control this pandemic."

 

The virus is believed to have originated among wild animals on sale in a seafood market in Wuhan that has been closed since January. A common sight across Asia, wet markets traditionally sell fresh produce and live animals, such as fish, in the open air.

 

Any wet markets allowed to reopen after lockdowns must conform to stringent food and hygiene standards, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

 

"Governments must rigorously enforce bans on trade of wildlife for food," he said.

 

(writing by Kevin Liffey and Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-04-18

 

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This is not unlike the situation in many other countries, deaths in nursing homes, deaths at home etc being under-reported or reported late.

The ONS in the UK recently revised their figures and acknowledge that deaths outside hospital will take a longer period to report.

56 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

This was done in attempt to leave no case undocumented

 

So has the WHO got all the numbers from Taiwan now, to add to the collective info ?

1 hour ago, rooster59 said:

"Governments must rigorously enforce bans on trade of wildlife for food," he said.

Along with biological weapons testing or remain uncivilised!

1 hour ago, rooster59 said:

Nearly 1,300 people who died of the coronavirus in the Chinese city of Wuhan, or half the total, were not counted in death tolls because of lapses, state media said on Friday, but Beijing dismissed claims that there had been any kind of cover-up.

and they actually think people will believe this. Well 1.3 billion will of course.

Looks like China now owns the World Heath Organisation.

3 hours ago, Laughing Gravy said:

Nearly 1,300 people who died of the coronavirus in the Chinese city of Wuhan, or half the total, were not counted in death tolls because of lapses, state media said on Friday, but Beijing dismissed claims that there had been any kind of cover-up.

and they left some 0's off.

4 hours ago, BigBadGeordie said:

This is not unlike the situation in many other countries, deaths in nursing homes, deaths at home etc being under-reported or reported late.

The ONS in the UK recently revised their figures and acknowledge that deaths outside hospital will take a longer period to report.

The NYT has an article that the corona virus deaths are understated in US due to the fact that there is no uniform system for reporting corona virus related deaths. US don’t do testing on those who die from flu for instance. 

 

 

3 hours ago, cornishcarlos said:

 

So has the WHO got all the numbers from Taiwan now, to add to the collective info ?

;... and 'that' there is where the Chinese dilemma lies;

 - they only want Taiwan and their peasants...

 - and not the dead ones

4 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Any wet markets allowed to reopen after lockdowns must conform to stringent food and hygiene standards

Pull the other one pal.

7 minutes ago, tifino said:

- they only want Taiwan and their peasants...

They want the entire world...…......by any means!

1 minute ago, PatOngo said:

10 minutes ago, tifino said:

- they only want Taiwan and their peasants...

They want the entire world...…......by any means!

the context of what I wrote was surgically taken out, as it involved more than just that one cut out sentence

 - my jest was, they have to accept the good and the bad from the pool.

 - to take on the populace meant they would have to absorb all the wuhan china victims of Taiwan, to become part of the whole China tally of victims ( and this a parody of whatever City/State accepted the well and the sick minions off a Cruise ship, they get to included those Stats, as theirs!

They need to take a serious look at any credibility/integrity they may or may not have ever had!

1 hour ago, Eric Loh said:

The NYT has an article that the corona virus deaths are understated in US due to the fact that there is no uniform system for reporting corona virus related deaths. US don’t do testing on those who die from flu for instance. 

 

 

That article is just an opinion article not fact. Several articles stating just the opposite. Doctors and hospitals are reporting no mater the cause of death, if the subject had C-19 they rule that as the cause. If a person walks out in the street and gets hit by a bus, test positive for C-19, then C-19 killed him.

The other day I read Wuhan had 87 cremation centers which were getting 3500 urns a day since mid March. It does not take a genus to add up these figures and they work 24 hours around the clock. It takes approximately 1 hour for a cremation cycle. They were also placing more than one in the camber at once.

1 minute ago, hlj said:

The other day I read Wuhan had 87 cremation centers which were getting 3500 urns a day since mid March. It does not take a genus to add up these figures and they work 24 hours around the clock. It takes approximately 1 hour for a cremation cycle. They were also placing more than one in the camber at once.

c'mon, at least look it up!  any genus can use the googles.

 

wuhan has 8 mortuaries, and we are assuming each has its own crematorium.

 

there were also some mobile burn chambers sent to the city during the crisis.  one may argue they too were burning bodies around the clock.  alternatively, they could have been employed burning medical waste - tons of masks, gloves and other ppe.

 

one reporter went to one mortuary after the lockdown was relaxed.  he took photos of one truck delivering 2,500 urns.  the driver was reported to have said he made a similar delivery the day before.  phone calls to other mortuaries went unanswered or declined to give numbers.

China is a closed, totalitarian society.  No way anyone can believe their numbers.

23 minutes ago, RANGER55 said:

That article is just an opinion article not fact. Several articles stating just the opposite. Doctors and hospitals are reporting no mater the cause of death, if the subject had C-19 they rule that as the cause. If a person walks out in the street and gets hit by a bus, test positive for C-19, then C-19 killed him.

It is not opinion from NYT. Actually factual statements taken from paramedics who said that many deaths were not tested for corona virus even though they have the symptoms. That’s the point. They found its not necessary to test as they have passed so the number of corona virus deaths does not reflect the correct numbers. The tests are already at a shortage because of lack of preparedness by Trump and this limits testing that they deem not necessary. 

      WHO, yea yea yea, we believe you. still backing Commie propaganda.

50 minutes ago, ChouDoufu said:

the cell phone numbers look great on propaganda sites, but mean little in context. 

You fail to explain why so many people locked in their homes would voluntarily give up their only contact with the outside world. It makes no sense. Propaganda at least needs to make sense to be believed.

 

My guess is these subscriptions were cut to silence people from taking about non socially cohesive subject matters. But we will never know.

Edited April 18, 20206 yr by rabas

2 minutes ago, RANGER55 said:

Well I guess we could do a Google search as long as we or not in China. Unless you can get around the CCP controlled internet with a VPN or other ways! But hey, I guess if you are working on a CCP computer posting, its not a problem, right.

 

no, sadly the googles is not accessible on china's internet servers.  we're stuck with baidu (very poor at searching english language sites) or microsoft's bing search engine (not much better).

 

those of us who want to access the real world do indeed use vpn's.  mine costs roughly $100/year.  added expense, but i can't do without rick&morty!  i've got one i loaded before i left thailand, no way would i use one sold on taobao.

 

vpn's usually work, although the net minders have an algorithm that shuts off nodes at random intervals.  sucks trying to stream movies, may have to wait a few minutes for the vpn to recycle.  aside from the random harassment, they do completely shut down vpn's during specific occasions - major party meetings, hong kong protests, and also for about a week in february during peak wuhan.  for the past 6-8 weeks no serious problem.

 

don't know about ccp computers, i'm on a lenovo ideapad i got from the mall in bangkapi about 18 months ago.  and here's some good news; retirement visa holders qualify for the vat refund when taking recently purchased electronics out, as long as you have the proper forms prepared at time of sale.

8 minutes ago, rabas said:

You fail to explain why so many people locked in their homes would voluntarily give up their only contact with the outside world. It makes no sense. Propaganda at least needs to make sense to be believed.

 

My guess is these subscriptions were cut to silence people from taking about non socially cohesive subject matters. But we will never know.

as with news articles, one needs to read beyond the headline, or in this case the first sentence.  did you not notice the next three paragraphs?

6 hours ago, rooster59 said:

She said the Chinese authorities had gone back over data from funeral services, care homes, fever clinics, hospitals and detention centres, and patients who had died at home, in Wuhan, Hubei province where the outbreak began late last year.

...................and carefully edited further

7 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Maria van Kerkhove, a WHO epidemiologist who took part in an international mission to China in February, said of China's revised figures: "This was done in attempt to leave no case undocumented."

555 cover up after cover up, it has no end with them

7 hours ago, rooster59 said:

"What they have reported is that the discrepancies in these cases were due to a number of factors. First is that the health care system in Wuhan was overwhelmed at one point. And some patients died at home," van Kerkhove said.

and a sad thing is that you believe them...

2 hours ago, Tropicalevo said:

Looks like China now owns the World Heath Organisation.

 

it has been paid in advance to the WHO boss country of origin, Ethiopia, huge, tremendous Chinese investment there

and what about the people that were shot by the chinese police during the lockdown(as per the video that was leaked by a local), were they added to it as well, highly doubt it. The wuhan locals talked about the crematoriums running 24 hours a day for weeks including the mobile ones brought in too, this would increase the number of dead exponentially but I guess that would make the ccp & who look pretty bad so they will be ignored as well, still a huge cover up by china to try to save face and not have the people start to call for their removal

The WHO should be starved of funds and wound up. Each country can help form a new organisation, say World Health & Environmental Network (chuckle...anyone else got a suggestion?). Then they can staff it with their corrupt officials.

3 hours ago, Eric Loh said:

The NYT has an article that the corona virus deaths are understated in US due to the fact that there is no uniform system for reporting corona virus related deaths. US don’t do testing on those who die from flu for instance. 

 

 

Nice attempt to deflect away from a discussion about how the WHO is owned by China.  Really typical of Chinese online propaganda.

So is it true you are only paid wu mao for each post, comrade?

1 hour ago, ChouDoufu said:

as with news articles, one needs to read beyond the headline, or in this case the first sentence.  did you not notice the next three paragraphs?

Of course, but found nothing to substantiate it. This seems contradictory though...

 

They also say it was true for the other major telecom providers.

 

https://kr-asia.com/key-stat-china-mobile-loses-7-million-subscribers-in-february-first-loss-in-23-years

 

52 minutes ago, Iron Tongue said:

Nice attempt to deflect away from a discussion about how the WHO is owned by China.  Really typical of Chinese online propaganda.

So is it true you are only paid wu mao for each post, comrade?

. Truth does make some people uncomfortable and resort to ad hominem. So sad yet typical.