"Three Times the Official Wuhan COVID-19 Death Toll"

Analysis of Academic Data by UK Economist Magazine
At Least 13,000 People... "Three Times the Government's Announced Figure of 3,900"

Wuhan, Hubei Province, China Photo by AP Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Suhwan] An analysis has emerged suggesting that the actual number of COVID-19 infection deaths in Wuhan, China, where the origin of the virus is under debate, is three times higher than the official statistics.

The British publication The Economist reported on the 30th (local time) that the actual death toll in Wuhan, where COVID-19 infections were first reported worldwide, may have been undercounted.

The Economist pointed out that, as in other countries, due to difficulties in comprehensive testing and accurate reporting, the official death toll in China may not accurately reflect the true scale of fatalities.

It explained that especially in authoritarian systems like China’s, defects are not easily acknowledged, which can lead to suspicious statistics.

Furthermore, it noted that a paper published on February 24 in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) provides clues that suggest underreporting of deaths in China.

The author of this paper had access to data on all deaths in China, and from January 1 to March 31 of last year, Wuhan recorded 5,954 more deaths compared to the same period the previous year.

Additionally, in other areas of Hubei Province, where Wuhan is located, deaths from COVID-19 and pneumonia-like symptoms were significantly higher than usual.

The Economist independently compared the excess death toll in Wuhan with the official COVID-19 death count based on tables included in the appendix of this paper.

As a result, the estimated excess deaths in Wuhan from January to March last year were 13,400, which is three times the official COVID-19 death toll and twice the excess deaths reported in the BMJ paper.

According to official statistics from Chinese health authorities, Wuhan, with a population of 11 million, recorded a total of 3,869 COVID-19 deaths. The Wuhan city government once changed the criteria for counting deaths during the tallying process. One-third of the total recorded deaths were reflected at once on April 17 last year, when the authorities updated reporting standards to include deaths occurring outside hospitals.

Since then, no COVID-19 deaths have been reported in Wuhan.

The Economist reported that there were no statistics available after April that could be used to calculate excess deaths.

The Economist stated, "Whatever the true death toll is, it is certain to be higher than the official COVID-19 death count in Wuhan," and added, "If COVID-19 deaths exceed 10,000, the rate per 100,000 population would be lower than New York’s but more severe than London’s."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.