CHINA DENIES COVER-UP AS WUHAN CORONAVIRUS DEATHS REVISED UP 50%

In face of international criticism over under-reporting coronavirus data,

China Friday denied these allegations made by other countries of covering up

the extent of its pandemic outbreak on Friday.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson acknowledged, as reported by PTI,

that the virus's rapid spread had contributed to undercounting that resulted

in China raising its death toll earlier Friday, however, he added "there has

never been any concealment, and we'll never allow any concealment."

Earlier in the day, the Wuhan municipal headquarters reported its death toll

as 4,632 revising from its earlier figures that totalled down to 3,869. The

country also revised its number of cases to 82,692.

As of April 16, the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Wuhan was

increased by 325 to 50,333 and the number of fatalities up by 1,290 to

3,869.

In a notification, the Wuhan municipal headquarters 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.

Explaining the reason for revising its coronavirus numbers, the Wuhan

municipality said it was done to ensure that the information on the city's

COVID-19 epidemic is open and transparent, and that the data are accurate.

Listing the reasons for the data discrepancies, it said the 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.

The registered information of some of the deceased patients was incomplete,

and there were repetitions and mistakes in the reporting, the Wuhan

authorities noted.

Citing an official of the Wuhan municipal headquarters, Xinhua reported that

a group for epidemic-related big data and epidemiological investigations was

established in late March.

"What lies behind the epidemic data are the lives and health of the general

public, as well as the credibility of the government," the official was

quoted by the report.

CHINA'S ECONOMY CONTRACTS FOR FIRST TIME IN DECADES

China's economy shrank by 6.8% in the first quarter of 2020, government data

showed on Friday, confirming the damage done to the second largest economy

in the world by the coronavirus pandemic. China's gross domestic product

stood at 20.65 trillion yuan (about $ 2.91 trillion) in the first quarter of

2020, down 6.8% year on year, data from the national bureau of statistics

(NBS) showed Friday.

Reports said it was the first time that the Chinese economy had contracted

since the Cultural Revolution, which ended in 1976.

State media reports said the 6.8% contraction translated to an economic loss

of about 1.44 trillion yuan ($203.4 billion), which is equivalent to the GDP

of New Zealand. The coronavirus first emerged China late last year, forcing

the government to opt for an extensive countrywide shutdown of factories and

businesses to contain the spread of the pathogen. The Communist Party of

China (CPC)-ruled government has restarted manufacturing across provinces

but the raging pandemic has severely disrupted the supply chain in the first

three months, impacting demand globally.

The impact of the pandemic on China's foreign trade is expected to show in

the second quarter with demand for goods from China - the world's

manufacturing hub - expected to plummet across the world.

"A breakdown of the data showed output of the service sector, which

accounted for nearly 60% of the total GDP, dropped by 5.2%, while primary

industry and the secondary industry saw a decline of 3.2% and 9.6%,

respectively," official news agency, Xinhua, said in a report.

NEW YORK GOVERNOR ATTACKS TRUMP FOR 'PASSING BUCK' ON PANDEMIC RESPONSE

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Friday launched a blistering attack on

President Donald Trump's response to the coronavirus crisis, accusing him of

"passing the buck" to the States and favoring big business over communities

hardest hit.

Mr. Cuomo, whose State is at the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, accounting

for nearly half of the country's deaths, said the president had repeatedly

refused to help States with ramping up testing because it was "too

complicated."

He said he needs federal funding to significantly ramp up testing capacity

and to fill a $10-$15 billion budget shortfall that is hampering the State's

ability to fund such efforts on its own. He criticized the aid packages

passed by Congress to date for a lack of funds to hard-hit states like New

York.

"Is there any funding so I can do these things that you want us to do?

'No,'" Mr. Cuomo told a daily briefing on the coronavirus. "That is passing

the buck without passing the bucks."

"The federal government has passed three bills to address this crisis. Of

those three bills the State governments have gotten precisely zero, zilch,

nada in unrestricted aid," Mr. Cuomo said.

"Okay, it's up to the States, but then don't ask the States, don't give them

this massive undertaking that has never been done before and then not give

them any resources to do it."

The governor said the president should "maybe get up and go to work" instead

of watching TV and accused him of favoring the airline industry and other

business cronies in a recent bailout package that Mr. Cuomo said left little

for the States.

He spoke one day after the Trump administration outlined plans for a phased

reopening, starting with the states least affected by the virus.

CHINA'S REVISED COVID-19 FIGURES ARE A BID TO 'LEAVE NO CASE UNDOCUMENTED':

WHO

A sharp upward revision in China's coronavirus death toll on Friday was "an

attempt to leave no case undocumented" after medical services in Wuhan were

overwhelmed at the start of the outbreak, the World Health Organization

(WHO) said.

Nearly 1,300 people who died of the coronavirus in the Chinese city of

Wuhan, or half the total, were not counted in death tolls because of lapses,

state media said on Friday, but Beijing dismissed claims that there had been

any kind of cover-up.

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 attempt to leave no case undocumented."

She said the Chinese authorities had gone back over data from funeral

services, care homes, fever clinics, hospitals and detention centres, and

patients who had died at home, in Wuhan, Hubei province where the outbreak

began late last year.

"What they have reported is that the discrepancies in these cases were due

to a number of factors. First is that the health care system in Wuhan was

overwhelmed at one point. And some patients died at home," Ms. van Kerkhove

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 said.

Mild cases were treated in makeshift hospitals in Wuhan stadiums or other

facilities, Ms. 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.

'FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN DISRUPTION A CONCERN'

Disruptions in domestic food supply chains are a pressing issue as the

COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, World Bank President David Malpass told reporters

on a tele-briefing on Friday.

Labour shortages are impacting logistics and loss of jobs and income has

impacted people's ability to afford food, he said.

"So we have a double problem of both the supply and the demand sides being

disrupted in such a critical area as food and agricultural supply chains,"

Mr. Malpass said, making specific references to the situation in parts of

Africa in this context.

The Bank would have pandemic-related programmes in 100 countries by the end

of April, Mr. Malpass said, with $160 billion of financing over the next 15

months, $50 billion of which will be on grant and highly concessional terms.

India had received a $1 billion health sector emergency loan from the World

Bank earlier in April.

"We're expecting a major global recession - our estimates suggest a much

deeper downturn than the Great Recession [2007-09]," he said. The World Bank

had recently projected a 1.5%-2.8% growth rate in this fiscal year.

Mr. Malpass also told the Development Committee that commercial creditors of

governments should not "free ride" and need to help sovereign debt reduction

efforts.

FRANCE SAYS NO EVIDENCE COVID-19 LINKED TO WUHAN RESEARCH LAB

France said on Friday there was no evidence so far of a link between the new

coronavirus and the work of the P4 research laboratory in the Chinese city

of Wuhan, where the current pandemic started.

"We would like to make it clear that there is to this day no factual

evidence corroborating the information recently circulating in the United

States press that establishes a link between the origins of Covid-19 and the

work of the P4 laboratory of Wuhan, China," an official at President

Emmanuel Macron's office said.

The broad scientific consensus holds that SARS-CoV-2, the official name of

the coronavirus, originated in bats.

In 2004, France signed an agreement with China to establish a research lab

on infectious diseases of biosafety level 4, the highest level, in Wuhan,

according to a French decree signed by then-foreign minister Michel Barnier.

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday his government was trying to

determine whether the coronavirus emanated from a lab in Wuhan, and

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Beijing "needs to come clean" on what

they know.

As far back as February, the Chinese state-backed Wuhan Institute of

Virology dismissed rumours that the virus may have been artificially

synthesized at one of its laboratories or perhaps escaped from such a

facility.

NASA, SPACEX PICK MAY 27 TO RESUME ASTRONAUT LAUNCHES IN U.S.

NASA and SpaceX have picked May 27 for resuming astronaut launches from the

U.S. after nine years of complete Russian dependence.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced the launch date Friday.

Astronauts haven't launched into orbit from the U.S. since NASA's last space

shuttle flight in 2011. SpaceX aims to end the drought by sending two NASA

astronauts to the International Space Station.

"On May 27, NASA will once again launch American astronauts on American

rockets from American soil!" Bridenstine tweeted.

Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken will blast off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9

rocket, departing from the same Kennedy Space Center launch pad used by

shuttle Atlantis in July 2011, as well as the Apollo moonshots a

half-century ago. Hurley served as pilot on that last shuttle mission and

will be the spacecraft commander for SpaceX's Dragon crew capsule.

Launch day will be a Wednesday, with a liftoff time of 4-32 p.m. EDT. It's

too soon to know whether the coronavirus pandemic will prompt crowd

restrictions.

Only three countries have launched people into orbit since 1961- Russia, the

U.S. and China, in that order. SpaceX would be the first company.