After a review of government data, Chinese officials revised the COVID-19 related death toll in Wuhan by 50%, increasing China’s total number of deaths to 4,632.

In a post on China’s National Health Commission (NHC) official website, Chinese government revised the country’s number of reported cases and deaths after conducting a review of all of their medical databases nationwide.

According to the Johns Hopkins University ARCGIS database, China recorded approximately 84,000 cases, 4,700 deaths, and 78,000 recoveries at the time of writing.

Reasons for the data review

With more and more countries relying on applications to assist contact tracing and self-diagnosis, Chinese health authorities admitted that the health system was overwhelmed in the first few days of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The new numbers came from various databases in China which included labs, detection centers, nursing homes, and makeshift hospitals.

Also, Chinese law requires funeral parlors, medical institutions, and public security authorities to review their respective numbers to provide reliability for their respective records.

According to Maria Van Kerkhove, Ph.D., the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) technical group on COVID-19, it is important for countries around the world to provide accurate and timely statistics regarding the novel coronavirus.

Kerkhove added that the data is vital for creating an effective and wider public health response to COVID-19 worldwide.

COVID-19 cases hit 2.2 million

COVID-19 cases have now reached more than 2.2 million cases worldwide and the death toll 155,000 persons globally.

The U.S., Germany, France, and Italy are among the top ten countries with the most number of COVID-19 cases.

Out of the top ten countries, seven of them are found in Europe, thus cementing the continent’s status as the center of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

COVID-19 has been officially reported in 185 countries worldwide, leaving only a couple of nations which did not report the occurrence of the virus.

However, there is hope as countries are conducting mass clinical trials for vaccines and treatment methods, while the number of recoveries worldwide is rapidly increasing as the days pass.

Anecdotes from patients who have survived the virus reveal that getting the virus does not mean certain death for the patient. Indeed, most patients get through the disease period being either asymptomatic or only experiencing mild to moderate symptoms.

Asymptomatic carriers

A study, meanwhile, said asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19 could “be more infectious” before the symptoms of the virus appear.

The study also said this might mean that asymptomatic carriers could be major carriers of the pandemic.

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