Timely, responsible revision of death figures: China Daily commentary

The authorities of Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, revised the numbers of local residents infected by the novel coronavirus, and the number of deaths caused by the virus on Friday — which rose from 50,008 to 50,333, and 2,579 to 3,869, respectively, in the principle of being responsible for history, the people and the deceased.

Considering that the city accounts for about 60 percent of infected cases and 70 percent of the deaths caused by the pandemic, the change in the figures has instantly revised up the national data from 3,352 to 4,642.

It will be no surprise that China’s revision of the number of deaths caused by the novel coronavirus may be greeted with suspicion by some, as there is always a voice criticizing China as manipulating the data to downplay the severity of the pandemic.

However, the revision of the data is warranted by professionalism in statistics.

As is the case in many other countries affected by the virus, the early stage in China also featured a shortage of testing kits, sickbeds and medics. Given the dramatic increase in the infected cases, particularly critically ill ones, there must be some people who died of the virus before receiving a test.

Also, the public health system in Wuhan was soon overwhelmed in the wake of the outbreak, and some grassroots clinics were not connected with the public health emergency response system in time. So the possibility that there was belated, missed and mistaken reporting cannot be eliminated.

So, after the country has put the pandemic under control at home, when it has more energy and time to look back on what happened, the government has immediately checked and revised relevant data, as it did with its disclosing of the asymptomatic case data.

Actually, Wuhan authorities have managed to include all the possible deaths resulting from the novel coronavirus through careful checking with related parties and comprehensive analysis of death causes to ensure that the facts about every case are accurate and every figure is objective and correct.

In other words, China has tried all it can to ensure the reliability and accuracy of its data, which have been indispensable as an important decision-making reference for the country to effectively implement its pandemic control measures.

Predictably, more accurate data will make the country’s already effective tactics against the virus better targeted.