The death tollfromthe coronavirus outbreak might have already soared to 24,589, against the official confirmed deaths of 636 people (as on Friday). A Taiwan media report suggested that the spread of the virus has been downplayed to keep the panic at bay.

Chinese tech conglomerate Tencent “briefly lists 154,023 infections and 24,589 deaths from Wuhan coronavirus”, said the Taiwan News report. “Tencent...seems to have inadvertently released what is potentially the actual number of infections and deaths, which were astronomically higher than the official figures,” it said.

Last Saturday, the Tencent webpage “showed confirmed cases of the Wuhan virus in China as standing at 154,023, 10 times the official figure at the time,” said the report. “It listed the number of suspected cases as 79,808, four times the official figure.” It further said the number of cured cases was just 269, against the official number for that day, of 300.

‘Epidemic situation tracker’

Minutes after releasing the figures on its website, titled ‘Epidemic Situation Tracker’, Tencent updated it to reflect official data as approved by the Chinese government, Taiwan News claimed.

The first case of coronavirus was reported in Wuhan, China, the epicentre of the deadly outbreak, on December 31, 2019, recalled a YourStory report. The virus then spread in no time at all, hitting more than 25 countries, though the worst-affected remained China.

Prominent industry leaders and philanthropic organisations have offered financial support to combat the disease, including Alibaba founder Jack Ma, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Chinese tech companies ByteDance, Tencent and Huawei, said the YourStory report.