Coronavirus: Lines outside funeral homes in Wuhan suggest higher number of deaths

It has been more than seven days since a single case of deadly coronavirus was reported in China’s Wuhan city and life is slowly coming back to normalcy. Wuhan residents are now suggesting that Chinese authorities did not report the true scale of casualties due to COVID-19 infections. Since the fatal pathogen was originated in Wuhan in December 2019, the Chinese government has reported 3,305 deaths and at least 81,518 confirmed cases. 

However, according to international media reports, when the families of those who succumbed to the COVID-19 disease in Wuhan were allowed to pick up urns at eight local funeral homes since last week, the long lines suggested that thousands of urns are being ferried in.

The media reports have further intensified the pressure on the Chinese government which has been the centre of mistrust by many world leaders including UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. According to international media reports, outside one funeral home in the central Chinese city, trucks had shipped over 2,500 urns on two consecutive days in the last week. Moreover, another picture published by Caixin showed at least 3,500 urns being stacked on the ground inside an establishment. It still remains unclear how many urns had been filled.

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UK is furious with China

According to a British media outlet, Downing Street is furious with China over its handling of the pandemic. A British newspaper even cited unidentified sources saying that scientists have told Johnson that China has downplayed the exact number of fatalities due to coronavirus infections “by a factor of 15 to 40 times”. 

This also comes in synergy which previous reports by the public-health experts, who have said for months that the actual number of COVID-19 cases in the world is apparently larger than what is being currently reported. Because some people either show no to mild symptoms, or some fail to get tested for COVID-19, they fail to make it to the final counts of infections. It is reportedly only after the world recovers from the pandemic will the researchers get the exact picture of how many people had contracted the fatal pathogen. 

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(Image source: AP)