The authorities in Wuhan, Hubei Province in central China, hard-hit by the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), revised the number of local residents infected with COVID-19, and the number of deaths caused by the disease, on April 17. 

The confirmed infected cases rose from 50,008 to 50,333. And the number of deaths of COVID-19 increased to 3,869, 1,290 more than the previous statistics.

There have been voices accusing China of manipulating the data to downplay the severity of the pandemic.

It is common practice for countries to revise early statistics according to new findings to correct deficiencies. During the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak in China, there was a shortage of test kits, hospital beds and medics, making data collection difficult. That has also happened in many other countries affected by the virus.

The revision of the data is dictated by professionalism. Wuhan has organized a special group working on data verification and epidemiological surveying. The group has extensively examined and compared statistics from various sources to make sure every single person affected is counted. 

Moreover, it is not possible for the local government to manipulate the numbers, especially after some officials have been held accountable for poor performance at the initial phase of the outbreak.

The difference in the two sets of data is within a reasonable range, caused by technical reasons rather than intentionally. China has done all it can to ensure the reliability and accuracy of its data.

(This is an edited excerpt of an article originally published in People.com on April 17)   

(Print Edition Title: Respect for Lives)