Data suggests virus infections under-reported, exaggerating fatality rate

FILE PHOTO: Funeral parlour staff members in protective suits help a colleague with disinfection after they transferred a body at a hospital, following the outbreak of a new coronavirus in Wuhan, Hubei province, China January 30, 2020. China Daily via REUTERS/File Photo

BEIJING (Reuters) - Fatalities from the coronavirus epidemic are overwhelmingly concentrated in central China's Wuhan city, which accounts for over 73% of deaths despite having only one-third the number of confirmed infections.

In Wuhan, the epicentre of the disease, one person has died for every 23 infections reported. That number drops to one on 50 nationally, and outside mainland China, one death has been recorded per 114 confirmed cases.