China says there has never been a cover-up on coronavirus outbreak

BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Friday there has never been a cover-up of the coronavirus outbreak in China and the government does not allow any cover-ups.

Zhao told reporters at a daily briefing that the revision of the case toll in Wuhan, where the epidemic first emerged in late 2019, was the result of a statistical verification to ensure accuracy and that revision is a common international practice.

Wuhan’s health authority earlier on Thursday revised up its cumulative death toll by 50% to 3,869 to rectify what it called incorrect reporting, delays and omissions.

Some, including U.S. President Donald Trump, have openly questioned the accuracy of China’s disclosures regarding the scale of the epidemic in the country.

(Reporting by Se Young Lee; Editing by Toby Chopra)