Top German doctor says China’s figures on coronavirus are 'nonsense'

The coronavirus pandemic began in Wuhan, China. Picture: PA

By Tobi Akingbade

The President of the German Medical Association has described China’s figures on coronavirus infections as "nonsense".

German doctor Frank Ulrich Montgomery said the numbers are not credible in many other countries either.

He said the recent low Chinese numbers were “nonsense” and suggested Beijing was intentionally providing false figures.

Dr Montgomery said other countries are also working with uncertain figures because better data often is not available.

He cited the lack of proper testing as one reason why many developing countries are reporting low infection rates.

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German doctor Frank Ulrich Montgomery said China's numbers were 'nonsense'. Picture: PA

The coronavirus pandemic has infected more than 940,000 people worldwide and over 47,000 deaths have been recorded.

The number of UK deaths from the virus jumped by 569 today.

The patients were aged between 22 and 100 years old, with 44 people aged between 25 and 100 years old having no known underlying health condition.

The jump in coronavirus-related hospital deaths in the UK from 2,352 to 2,921 is an increase of 569 – the highest day-on-day rise since the outbreak began and up very slightly on yesterday’s rise of 563.

It took 19 days for the number of deaths in the UK to pass 300. It has taken further 10 days to reach just under 3,000.

For the first time, the number of new people tested per day in the UK for coronavirus has passed 10,000.

A further 10,215 new people were reported as being tested in the 24 hours to 9am April 2.

The total number of people in the UK tested since the outbreak began is now 163,194.

This is the equivalent of 245 people in every 100,000.

The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK stands at 33,718, as of 9am on April 2.

A week ago, on March 26, the total was 11,658.