Statistical error led to more than 100 deaths being counted twice, national health commission says
Updated

More cities in China are restricting people’s movements in a bid to contain the coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 1,300 people.
Photograph: Tyrone Siu/Reuters
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12.37am EST00:37
108 deaths were double-counted, as US criticises lack of transparency
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11.34pm EST23:34
Sydney cruise ship given all clear
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9.54pm EST21:54
1,380 deaths in China
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8.06pm EST20:06
“No outbreak of disease” on Sydney cruise ship
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8.00pm EST20:00
Westerdam passengers test negative
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7.51pm EST19:51
78-year old man and 18-month old toddler among Australians still stranded in Wuhan
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7.17pm EST19:17
116 new deaths – lower than yesterday
The first group of French nationals repatriated from China due to the coronavirus outbreak returned to the outside world today after two weeks in quarantine, Reuters reports.
None of the 181 involved – who had been flown home from Wuhan, the epicentre of the epidemic – tested positive for the virus, local health officials said.
“There have been no problems …but people are happy that it’s over,” Marc Zyltman, Red Cross head at the southern holiday resort of Carry-Le-Rouet where they were quarantined, told reporters.
A further 157 people remain in quarantine in southern France, of whom 122 will be allowed home on Feb. 16 and the remainder on Febuary 23.
France has recorded 11 cases of the virus, out of a global total of 63,851, of whom the vast majority are in China. The epidemic has killed close to 1,400 people.

A bus carrying French citizens repatriated from Wuhan leaves the Vacanciel hotel club resort, where they had been quarantined for 14 days, in Carry-le-Rouet, southern France, 14 February 2020. EPA/SEBASTIEN NOGIER Photograph: Sébastien Nogier/EPA
China’s public broadcasting network, CCTV, has been showing images of what it reports is “the third batch” of 35 patients transferred to the Leishenshan (Thunder God Mountain) Hospital in Wuhan, one of two new hospitals built over the course of a few weeks as the official face of the country’s struggle against coronavirus.
CCTV
(@CCTV)The third batch of 35 patients were transferred to the Leishenshan (Thunder God Mountain) Hospital in Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei Province on Feb. 12. #CombatCoronavirus pic.twitter.com/xHorMynniv
Four days after its opening, this week the larger Leishenshan hospital had only 90 patients, on wards designed for 1,600, but was reporting no spare beds, Wuhan city health data, first reported by the Chinese magazine Caixin, showed.
The other facility, Huoshenshan, had not yet filled its 1,000 beds a week after opening.
This is Ben Quinn (@BenQuinn75) picking up the blog now in London.
Reuters reports that 1,716 health workers have been infected by the coronavirus and six of them have died, as of Tuesday.
China National Health Commission Vice Minister Zeng Yixin said on Friday that, at a press conference about protecting medical workers, said the number of infected medical staff is increasing.
Chinese officials and hospitals have repeatedly noted a shortage of protective equipment, including face masks, as the disease took hold in Hubei and spread throughout the country.

Nurse Zhou Li wears a protective suit before entering a ward at Xianghu Hospital of the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University in Nanchang, east China’s Jiangxi Province Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock
Lily Kuo has the latest from China, where wartime measures are being expanded to more cities, as a US official has questioned whether Beijing is being transparent over the outbreak. Read the full story here:
Summary so far
So far today:
- The total death toll in mainland China rose to 1,380 – after 121 new deaths were recorded on Thursday, but also after 108 deaths were removed due to supposed double-counting.
- The total number of confirmed cases in mainland China rose to 63,851, a rise of 5,090 new cases.
- A cruise ship, docked in Sydney, has been given the all clear after a person tested negative for the virus. Earlier, media reports erroneously claimed the ship was in lockdown.
- In Cambodia, the more than 2000 passengers and crew of the Westerdam cruise ship finally disembarked, after 20 of its passengers were tested and cleared of the virus. The ship had been refused entry to five different countries.
- A 78-year old man and an 18-month old toddler are still among the Australian citizens still stranded in Wuhan.
- Japan recorded its first death from the new coronavirus, which is the third coronavirus fatality outside mainland China.
- It was confirmed that yesterday’s large spike in recorded deaths and cases was due to China changing the methodology of confirming cases, and broadening the definition.
108 deaths were double-counted, as US criticises lack of transparency
An explanation here for shifting numbers.
China’s National Health Commission has said it removed 108 deaths from its national total because it made a statistical error, according to Agence France-Presse.
On Friday, Hubei’s health commission said an extra 116 people had died in the province overnight, and more than 4,800 new cases were reported. However, it also removed 108 deaths from the running total, saying they had been double counted.
That leaves the total number of deaths so far, in mainland China, at 1,380.
Three people have died outside of China: in Japan, Hong Kong and the Philippines.
The number of cases and deaths was also revised upwards yesterday, when China announced it was changing its methodology for registering Covid-19 cases.
Previously, the government was only counting cases that had been confirmed in a laboratory as the new coronavirus. Yesterday, they changed that to cases where a doctor observed a chest infection on a CT scan.
This led to a jump of 13,300 extra cases, which go back retrospectively days or weeks. 254 new deaths were also added.
Michael Ryan, the head of World Health Organisation’s health emergencies programme, said this “does not represent a significant change in the trajectory of the outbreak” – because it was retrospective.
Meanwhile, Larry Kudlow, the director of the US National Economic Council, said he was “disappointed in the lack of transparency coming from the Chinese”.
Reports here of lockdowns and quarantine measures that have begun to start in Shanghai.
Michael Smith
(@MikeSmithAFR)I have been put under Home quarantine for 14 days after returning to Shanghai. For my neighbours, only 1 person per household is allowed out once a day. Some renters are being denied access to their homes. This is a city increasingly in lockdown. #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/UMEmbTa8PN
In broader medical news, generic drugmakers from India may face shortages and price hikes due to the knock-on effect of the Covid-19 outbreak, analysts say.
Indian companies procure almost 70% of their active pharmaceutical ingredients from China, Reuters report.
“We are comfortably placed with eight to 10 weeks of key inventory in place,” said Debabrata Chakravorty, head of global sourcing and supply chain for Lupin Ltd, adding that the company does have some local suppliers for ingredients.
An extended outbreak that limits the volume of active ingredients and drugs available for export from China could lead to drug shortages and price increases, particularly in the United States – where prices are subject to market forces – according to rating agency Moody’s.
India supplies nearly a third of medicines sold in the United States.
Daara Patel, secretary general of the Indian Drug Manufacturers Association, which represents over 900 drug producers, said he expects supplies to be disrupted from April.
Patel said vitamins and antibiotics are likely to be among the hardest hit as India is a major global producer of both.
Sudarshan Jain, secretary general of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance trade group, said there are no API shortages at the moment because drugmakers had stocked up on inventory ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday in China, which was later extended to contain the virus.
Sydney cruise ship given all clear
A person has been tested for the new coronavirus on a cruise ship moored in Sydney and does not have the virus, NSW Health have confirmed.
Earlier this morning, media reports in other outlets incorrectly said a man had a confirmed case on board the Norwegian Jewel, which had sailed from New Zealand.
NSW Health had said earlier that “none [of the passengers] had been in China in the previous 14 days and there was no outbreak of any disease on board”.
Three people were transferred to hospital from the cruise ship, but this was not due to Covid-19, and were in fact “pre-booked by the cruise ship”
But NSW Health said they did test one person, but this was “a precaution and “there is no indication that the person is at particular risk of Covid-19.”
“There is no concern for other passengers or people in and around Circular Quay,” they said.
Ketchup and cola factories are partially closing across China, as confirmed by the Kraft Heinz company and PepsiCo.
Pepsi has closed one of its six Chinese factories ever since the Chinese New Year, but it is expected to open again soon, Bloomberg reports.
But both companies say disruption will be minimal, and Kraft Heinz CEO Miguel Patricio said only 2% of its sales came from China.
Some odd scenes in Sihanoukville in Cambodia today, as 1,455 passengers and 802 crew were finally allowed to disembark from the Westerdam cruise ship.
The ship had been refused port by five countries over Covid-19 fears, but tests by Cambodian doctors said no passengers had the new virus.
Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen greeted the passengers with roses as they left the ship.
Anna Marie Melon, from Queensland, said that Hun Sen had “a wonderful heart” as he handed a rose to her.
“Cambodia alone, even the United States, Guam, did not let us land, but Cambodia did, so thats wonderful,” said American Joe Spaziani to Associated Press.
“We appreciate it very very much. Its been a long struggle and we appreciate everyone being here.”
Domestically, Hun Sen has been criticised for arresting political opponents, and was described a “fully fledged military dictator” by Human Rights Watch. The former Khmer Rouge member has been in power for 35 years, making him the world’s longest-serving prime minister.