French Prez Emmanuel Macron questions China's handling of COVID-19 outbreak

Macron told the Financial Times it was "naive" to think China had managed well the crisis.

“Given these differences, the choices made and what China is today, which I respect, let’s not be so naive as to say it’s been much better at handling this,” he told Financial Times when asked if erratic efforts to curb the Covid-19 pandemic had not exposed the weaknesses of western democracies and highlighted the advantages of authoritarian governments such as China.

"We don’t know. There are clearly things that have happened that we don’t know about," he said as he questioned China's handling of COVID-19.

France has witnessed 141,000 cases of Covid-19 so far.

The nation reported nearly 18,000 deaths.

The disease, which has now touched all the nations across the globe, is first believed to have originated from China.

Wuhan factor haunts again:

China's COVID-19 outbreak epicentre Wuhan has increased the death toll from the deadly virus by 50 percent amid worldwide suspicion of the figures it released earlier.

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Wuhan as of the end of April 16 was revised up by 325 to 50,333, and the number of fatalities up by 1,290 to 3,869, Xinhua--China's news agency reported.

In a notification, the Wuhan municipal headquarters for the COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control said the revisions were made in accordance with related laws and regulations as well as the principle of being responsible for history, the people and the deceased.

This ensures that the information on the city's COVID-19 epidemic is open and transparent, and the data are accurate, said the notification.

Four reasons for the data discrepancies were listed in the notification:

A surging number of patients at the early stage of the epidemic overwhelmed medical resources and the admission capacity of medical institutions. Some patients died at home without having been treated in hospitals.

During the height of their treating efforts, hospitals were operating beyond their capacities and medical staff were preoccupied with saving and treating patients, resulting in belated, missed and mistaken reporting.

Due to a rapid increase of designated hospitals for treating COVID-19 patients, including those administered by ministries, Hubei Province, Wuhan city and its districts, those affiliated to companies, as well as private hospitals and makeshift hospitals, a few medical institutions were not linked to the epidemic information network and failed to report their data in time.

The registered information of some of the deceased patients was incomplete, and there were repetitions and mistakes in the reporting.

An official of the headquarters told media that a group for epidemic-related big data and epidemiological investigations was established in late March.

The group used information from online systems and collected full information from all epidemic-related locations to ensure that facts about every case are accurate and every figure is objective and correct, the official said.

"What lie behind epidemic data are the lives and health of the general public, as well as the credibility of the government," said the official, adding that the timely revision of the figures, among other things, shows respect for every single life.