CHINA (UCAN): Local people suspect that April 17 revision of the Covid-19 death toll in Hubei province by authorities in China could be in preparation to increase the number of overall fatalities in the country. Provincial officials added 1,290 more deaths bringing the death toll for the province to 3,869 and the national tally to 4,632 deaths.
Father Paul Li, a social observer in mainland China, remarked that the Chinese Communist Party must be preparing to release even bigger figures, saying that the revision of figures in Hubei could be part of “exploring the road” as the party now knows its numbers will make it look like it is hiding the truth.
The government said it revised the number because of the late reporting of deaths by hospitals and families. The update counted the numbers available until April 16, it said.
However, Father Li said the government had put even personal e-mails and social media accounts under surveillance. “How can they say the hospitals were late reporting deaths?” he questioned, saying authorities were looking for reasons to deal with the situation.
“The whole world now knows that the party was hiding numbers. In this age of technology, it’s only a matter of time (before) people will get the information authorities are trying to hide,” the priest said.
The pandemic, which was first reported in Hubei’s Wuhan city last December, lasted in the province for more than three months. But the national death roll even now stands below 5,000.
In contrast, several European cities have reported tens of thousands of deaths from Covid-19 in the past three months. New York, in the United States (US) reported some 15,000 fatalities, while the overal death toll for the US was 47,272 as of April 24.
John, a Catholic in Hubei, said that a government report on April 10 revealed that some 400 orphan children, whose parents died of Covid-19, were rescued and protected in various places.
“That means 800 adults have died of the epidemic, considering the number of orphan children reported. What about children still not found or not rescued?” he asked.
John said the Wuchang Funeral parlour stated on March 23 that it would distribute the ashes of only 500 people a day before the Qingming Festival, which this year fell on April 4.
“That means in 13 days one funeral parlour distributed the ashes of 6,500 cremated bodies. There are eight funeral parlours in Wuhan. The figures will anyway exceed the official death toll,” he said.
A government official, who asked not to be named, revealed that the number of deaths in Wuhan was “staggering” and that the official number is just “the tip of the iceberg.”
He said, “Don’t say that China fought and won the epidemic because of its rulers. It is exactly these rulers who created a huge problem” by trying to suppress information on the outbreak.
Xiao Zheng, a journalist in Henan province, said: “The government of China is like this … it slowly corrects when the situation demands.” He said authorities seem to forget that in the Internet age every post of an individual is a record and just counting individual death reports “could reveal the real situation. Authorities can’t hide anything.”
The revision of the death toll became a debate on social media, with many claiming that authorities were covering up the truth.
Some civil servants also questioned the truthfulness about the epidemic on the part of Hubei’s authorities.
On April 13, a civil servant, Tan Jun, of Yichang City in Hubei, approached a court to file a criminal case against the provincial government for concealing information on the disease, resulting in loss of lives and property.
However, the court did not accept his petition and he was later taken away for a “conversation” with local authorities, who asked him not to sue the government and not to post the information on the Internet. But Tan posted about the entire incident on his social media.
Tan said those responsible for the lapses must be held accountable. “As a Hubeian, I feel the need to stand up and call for the government to come forward and take responsibility,” he said.
