[Farm93]

Let's not forget that deaths from other causes were still happening in Wuhan.  It's more than likely that deaths from other causes increased because hospitals were overrun.  I saw an interview with a cancer patient in Wuhan who couldn't get treatment.   No doubt there were others.  

So, assigning all excess deaths* in Wuhan to Covid-19 is baseless.

*I have yet to see an authoritative figure for the "normal" death rate in Wuhan, much less the death rate in mid-winter when influenza, etc. were probably going around as ewll.

You, as a person outside of the Chinese Communist Party leadership, will not likely see those numbers, at least not for a while.
Right now, for the Chinese Community Party, the narrative is perfect.   "There was a deadly outbreak, but thanks to our one party system we took action and we had fewer deaths across our 1.3 billion people than Italy, Spain and the USA had with much smaller populations.  In those places politicians argued for weeks rather than take action, and their citizens died as a result."   

There is no reason to change that story. 

In time, some with real knowledge will disclose more information, but not now.   The official death count likely includes those that died in the hospitals.   Some/many/most that died outside of hospitals probably were not tested so are not in the official count. 

I won't go as far as to say I know the Chinese government intentionally lied, but I am fairly confident they didn't march through the countryside to confirm COVID-19 wasn't involved in the at home deaths of every 70+ year-old that the local officials declared were the result of natural causes/old age/heart failure/cancer/flu/pneumonia/etc.

There is really not much value for China to circle back and figure that out, and even less value in them disclosing that to their citizens or people outside of China.

The tally of fatalities for the Spanish Flu took several decades to uncover, and even today the estimates vary dramatically.  COVID-19 will likely end up in a similar place.

[Farm93]

Let's not forget that deaths from other causes were still happening in Wuhan.  It's more than likely that deaths from other causes increased because hospitals were overrun.  I saw an interview with a cancer patient in Wuhan who couldn't get treatment.   No doubt there were others.  

So, assigning all excess deaths* in Wuhan to Covid-19 is baseless.

*I have yet to see an authoritative figure for the "normal" death rate in Wuhan, much less the death rate in mid-winter when influenza, etc. were probably going around as ewll.

You, as a person outside of the Chinese Communist Party leadership, will not likely see those numbers, at least not for a while.
Right now, for the Chinese Community Party, the narrative is perfect.   "There was a deadly outbreak, but thanks to our one party system we took action and we had fewer deaths across our 1.3 billion people than Italy, Spain and the USA had with much smaller populations.  In those places politicians argued for weeks rather than take action, and their citizens died as a result."   

There is no reason to change that story. 

In time, some with real knowledge will disclose more information, but not now.   The official death count likely includes those that died in the hospitals.   Some/many/most that died outside of hospitals probably were not tested so are not in the official count. 

I won't go as far as to say I know the Chinese government intentionally lied, but I am fairly confident they didn't march through the countryside to confirm COVID-19 wasn't involved in the at home deaths of every 70+ year-old that the local officials declared were the result of natural causes/old age/heart failure/cancer/flu/pneumonia/etc.

There is really not much value for China to circle back and figure that out, and even less value in them disclosing that to their citizens or people outside of China.

The tally of fatalities for the Spanish Flu took several decades to uncover, and even today the estimates vary dramatically.  COVID-19 will likely end up in a similar place.