World health officials who returned from the Chinese capital Beijing expressed great concern that the regime is hiding the number of coronavirus affected victims and is also not honest about the death toll due to the outbreak.

The officials claimed that Chinese authorities have been cremating bodies in secret and said bodies were being sent directly from hospitals to cremation centres without being properly identified and added to the official record.

William Yang is sceptical about the death count

William Yang, correspondent of DW News East Asia, sceptical about the death count, said, ''So there are reasons to remain sceptical about what China has been sharing with the world because while they have been more transparent about certain things related to the virus, they continue to be sketchy and unreliable in other aspects.''

''Also, one thing that #China is hiding is the number of death caused by the virus. Credible Chinese media outlet @initiumnews interviewed people working at local cremation centres, confirming that many dead bodies were sent directly from the hospitals to the cremation centres'' and followed it up with ''seriousness of the spread in #China, but also the lack of facilities that can handle the rising number of patients,'' tweeted Yang.

Yang also shared an image on Twitter on how the Chinese government is curtailing information about the virus after they detained prominent activist Hu Jia as he was invited to speak about the epidemic to a foreign media outlet. ''This is how #China tries to control information about #WuhanCoronavirusOutbreak - arbitrary detention of prominent activist Hu Jia simply because he was invited to talk about the public health crisis on a foreign media outlet. The detention has no legitimacy except.''

However, on a positive note, the World Health Organization's Emergencies Chief told reporters that China was taking "extraordinary measures in the face of an extraordinary challenge" posed by the infectious outbreak.

Coronavirus crisis goes global

Coronavirus which started in Wuhan, China, has spread across the globe and countries like India, Japan, Singapore, Vietnam and Taiwan have confirmed cases and several others have been quarantined and kept under observation. International flights to and from China have been suspended by many countries and approved Chinese visas have been cancelled as well.