Taipei: Chinese multinational conglomerate holding company ‘Tencent’ has allegedly published the ‘real’ data regarding the number of people affected and deaths due to the novel coronavirus. It recently said that the total number of deaths due to the dreaded disease stood at 24,589, much higher than the figure of 630 released by the Chinese government Friday.
‘Tencent’ reported the huge number of deaths on its webpage titled ‘Epidemic Situation Tracker’ said Taiwan News. It also said confirmed cases of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in China stood at 1,54,023, way over the official figure given to the world February 5. It listed the number of suspected cases as 79,808, four times the official figure.
“The number of cured cases was only 269, well below the official number that day of 300. Most ominously, the death toll listed was 24,589, vastly higher than the 300 officially listed that day,” Tencent reported.
However, once people noticed this, ‘Tencent’ immediately updated the numbers to reflect the Chinese government’s ‘official’ numbers.
“Netizens noticed that ‘Tencent’ has on at least three occasions posted extremely high numbers, only to quickly lower them to government-approved statistics,” the report by Taiwan News said.
Some people speculated a coding problem may be behind the real ‘internal’ data but others believe that someone is actually trying to reveal the real numbers. It is a well know fact that the Chinese government at times do try to conceal facts. So once the ‘Tencent’ figures became public, many people started reacting to it.
Sources in Wuhan, however have time and again said ‘many coronavirus patients are unable to receive treatment and die outside of hospitals’. They also said that Wuhan officials cremate deceased coronavirus victims before they could be added to the official death toll. ‘The Wall Street Journal’ has reported that the coronavirus numbers coming out of China are ‘fishy’.
‘Caijing’, an independent magazine based in Beijing that covers societal, political, and economic issues, has also claimed that the Communist Party of China (CCP) is underreporting the extent of the coronavirus outbreak.
As of Friday, the official death toll in China rose to 636, with over 31,000 confirmed cases.
Agencies
