TORONTO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd April, 2020) Canadian Health Minister Patty Hajdu told reporters there is no evidence that China falsified COVID-19 statistics at the height of the pandemic in the country.
"There's no indication that the data that came out of China in terms of their infection rate and their death rate was falsified in any way," Hajdu said during the cabinet ministers' daily briefing on the COVID-19 pandemic on Thursday.
On Wednesday, a Bloomberg report, citing confirmation from two US officials, revealed that the country's intelligence community had concluded that China concealed the extent of the outbreak. Beijing adamantly rejects the allegations, saying that US officials are trying to absolve themselves of blame, while shifting attention from own shortcomings in containing the virus.
The health minister said that the legitimacy of Chinese data is supported by differences in death rates between now and earlier, and that data collection is done with the oversight of the World Health Organization (WHO).� Hajdu added that insinuations to the contrary help drive conspiracy theories.
The number of COVID-19 cases worldwide has exceeded one million with more than 51,000 deaths as of Thursday afternoon, according to the Johns Hopkins University. The United States leads the global tally with more than 236,000 confirmed cases.
