The foreign ministry spokesman of China, Zhao Lijian stated on Friday that there was never a cover-up of the coronavirus or COVID-19 outbreak in China and the country's 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.
China's Coronavirus situation
Wuhan's health authority earlier on Thursday revised up its cumulative death toll by 50 percent to 3,869 to rectify what it called incorrect reporting, delays and omissions. Some, including US President Donald Trump, have openly questioned the accuracy of China's disclosures regarding the scale of the epidemic in the country.
The coronavirus outbreak has created a major stir around the world in recent times infecting over two million people worldwide. The WHO has described it as a pandemic and has spread to over 170 countries in the world.
(With agency inputs)
