世卫组织：预计将来许多国家和地区会像武汉一样对数据进行修订

4月17日，武汉市新冠肺炎疫情防控指挥部发布通报，本着对历史负责、对人民负责、对逝者负责的原则，为确保全市新冠肺炎疫情信息公开透明、数据准确，将新冠肺炎确诊病例数由50008例订正为50333例，核增325例；确诊病例的死亡病例由2579例订正为3869例，核增1290例。

对此，世卫组织卫生紧急项目技术主管玛丽亚·范凯尔克霍弗17日表示，“武汉当局这么做，是为了保证所有的病例都能记录在案。”

“中方政府对殡葬系统、养老机构、发热门诊、医院、隔离点等场所的数据以及在家中死亡的病例数进行了追溯和审核，删除了重复的数据，添加了遗漏的数据。”

An upward revision in China's COVID-19 death toll on Friday was "an attempt to leave no case undocumented" after medical services in the country's epicenter Wuhan were overwhelmed at the start of the outbreak, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in central China's Wuhan as of the end of April 16 was revised up by 325 to 50,333, and the number of fatalities increased by 1,290 to 3,869. Local authorities said the revision ensures that the information on the city's COVID-19 epidemic is open and transparent.

Maria van Kerkhove, a WHO epidemiologist who took part in an international mission to China in February, said of China's revised figures: "This was done in an attempt to leave no case undocumented." 

The Chinese authorities had gone back over data from funeral services, care homes, fever clinics, hospitals and detention centers, and patients who had died at home, in Wuhan, Hubei Province where the outbreak began late last year, van Kerkhove, the WHO's COVID-19 technical lead, told a virtual press conference in Geneva.

A passenger boards flight MU2527 of China Eastern airlines at the Tianhe International Airport in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, April 8, 2020，aftter the city lifted 76-day outbound travel restrictions over the COVID-19 outbreak. /Xinhua

范凯尔克霍弗提到，武汉市病例数据被修订，主要有以下几个原因：

第一，疫情暴发早期，武汉市医疗系统不堪重负，部分新冠肺炎患者死于家中。

第二，由于救治压力巨大，医护人员忙于照顾手头的病人没能及时填写相关表格，导致迟报漏报。

另外，轻症患者在方舱医院等临时收治场所治疗时，数据统计的工作并不及时，这也是核增数据的一个来源。

同时，她还强调，在疫情暴发期间想要精准的统计数据是很难的，但这对了解一个流行病至关重要。

"What they have reported is that the discrepancies in these cases were due to a number of factors. First is that the healthcare system in Wuhan was overwhelmed at one point. And some patients died at home," she said. 

"Secondly is that medical staff were delayed in reporting of these cases because they were focused on providing care for those patients and they didn't fill out the forms in time," she added. 

Mild cases were treated in temporary hospitals in Wuhan stadiums or other facilities, van Kerkhove said, adding: "In those situations the reporting wasn't done in a timely manner and so those cases were added." 

It was important to know the number of people who had died from the disease and to have "accurate reporting," which can be a challenge during an outbreak, she said. 

Medical workers celebrate after the closure of a temporary hospital in Wuchang District of Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, March 10, 2020. /Xinhua

根据约翰斯·霍普金斯大学最新数据显示，全球新冠肺炎确诊病例已超220万例，死亡病例已超15万例。

世卫组织专家认为，出现疫情的其他国家和地区将来也会像武汉一样，需要对数据进行修订。

“我预计许多国家会经历与武汉类似的情况，他们也将回头对数据重新审核，以确认数据是否包含所有病例，” 范凯尔克霍弗说。

世卫组织卫生紧急项目负责人迈克尔·瑞安也表示，“所有的国家都将面临这个问题（数据修订）。” 同时，他敦促各国尽早的统计出准确的数据，“因为这样能够帮助我们更加准确的采取应对措施。”

中国外交部发言人赵立坚在周五的例行发布会上指出，对疫情数据进行修订并不罕见，其他国家也曾有过这种先例。

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have exceeded 2.2 million globally, with the death toll surpassing 153,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. 

WHO experts believe that other countries hit by the pandemic will need to review their figures as Wuhan did. 

"I would anticipate that many countries are going to be in a similar situation where they will have to go back and review records and look to see did we capture all of them," van Kerkhove said. 

Michael Ryan, the WHO's emergency director, added: "All countries will face this." But he urged nations to produce precise data as early as possible, "because that keeps us on top of what the impact is, and allows us to project forward in a much more accurate way."

During a regular press briefing on Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian noted that this kind of revision to epidemic statistics is not a rare case as it is also practiced as by other countries around the world as international normalcy. 

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