China on Friday denied covering up the extent of its coronavirus outbreak and accused the US of attempting to divert the public attention by insinuating that the virus originated from a virology laboratory in Wuhan. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian’s comments came as China’s coronavirus death toll mounted to 4,632 after it revised the fatality figures by 50 per cent in Wuhan.
“I want to emphasise that the revision of the data regarding infectious disease is an internationally accepted practice,” Zhao told a media briefing, defending the sharply upward revision of figures amid allegations of under-reporting of casualties of coronavirus cases and casualties by China in Wuhan.
He said in the early stage of the outbreak there were some late reports, omissions, and inaccurate information.
He said this can be explained by the insufficient capacity of admissions and treatment of patients in hospitals, failure of some medical institutions to connect with disease prevention and control information systems in a timely manner, overload of hospitals and pre-occupation of medical staff with the treatment of patients.
“But there has never been any concealment, and we’ll never allow any concealment,” Zhao said. The revision of figures came amid sharp criticism of China by the US and other nations for its alleged under-reporting of the coronavirus cases and cover-up of the origin of the viral strain, which emerged in Wuhan in December last, reportedly from the local Huanan seafood market.