City Councilor Questions Unreported Deaths 北市議員質疑 雙北確診死亡.火化數有落差

Taipei City Councilor Chung Hsiao-pien accused the CECC of concealing the truth, saying there are more cremations than the official figure. 

A city councilor questioned if there may still be unreported deaths in the local epidemic hotspots of Taipei and New Taipei City. The councilor said according to the Central Epidemic Command Center, 52 people in Taipei and 114 in New Taipei died from the epidemic from May 1st to the 16th. During the same period, there were a total of 347 cremations from the two cities, which don't add up to the deaths reported by the CECC.

Chung Hsiao-pien, Taipei City Councilor: “This is hiding the death toll figures. This is not the same as correcting the number of confirmed diagnoses. My second point was just corrected by the Taipei Health Department. Perhaps Taipei cremated bodies from other counties and cities. But the difference shouldn't be two or three times.”

Chen Kuan-ling, Director, Mortuary Services Office, Taipei: “Whatever the cause of death, as long as the person's death certificate states he has COVID-19 or was PCR-positive, we count this as a COVID death.”

The Taipei City Mortuary Services Office pointed out that as long as the information of the deceased is marked with COVID-19, the death will be included in the statistics. However, the cause of death is not necessarily COVID, which may be different from the number of confirmed cases announced by health officials. The Taipei City Hospital doctors warned that with the current severe situation of the epidemic, not all positive confirmed patients can go get a PCR test. Thus, it is not surprising that there are unreported numbers.

Chen Shih-chung, Commander, Central Epidemic Command Center: “I don't think it's necessary to hide these numbers. Our numbers have always been transparent.”

The CECC said that all statistical data are transparent. They will investigate the information provided by the city councilor.  The whole country of Taiwan will have the same epidemic situation as people constantly move between cities on a daily basis. The epidemic is expected to spread to central and southern Taiwan. Experts suggest that oral drugs should be replenished. Chen responded that antivirals to serve 3.5 percent of the total population have been purchased so far. 

處在本土疫情熱區的雙北，被台北市議員質疑，恐怕還有死亡個案的黑數。議員鍾小平表示，根據指揮中心公布5月1日到16日全台染疫死亡個案中，台北市52例、新北114例，對比議員調查，同期間火化的染疫亡者雙北共347例，有落差。

台北市議員鍾小平指出：「根本是隱匿死亡數字，這跟校正回歸不一樣。第二個，剛剛衛生局技正，我說明一下台北市，或許有燒一點點其他縣市的遺體，可是比例不會差到兩三倍。」

台北市殯葬管理處指出，只要是死者資料有註記新冠肺炎就會列入統計，不過死因不一定是新冠肺炎，可能因此和衛生單位公布的確診數量不同。

殯葬管理處長陳冠伶回應：「不管他的死因是什麼，只要他的死亡證明書上面，他有寫說他是有新冠肺炎，或是PCR陽性的亡者，這個我們都會算到。」

不過北市聯合醫院醫師示警，以目前疫情嚴峻的狀況，加上不是所有確診者都能去PCR，有黑數不意外。

中央流行疫情指揮中心指揮官陳時中表示：「我想隱瞞這個東西都沒有必要，我們的數字一向都是公開的。」

指揮中心表示，各項統計數據，都是很透明的，對於議員提出的資料，會去了解，而以台灣一日生活圈來說，全國都會有一樣的染疫狀況，可預期接下來中南部疫情，也會持續擴散。對於醫界建議，口服藥應該要再加購，陳時中回應，目前已經採購全人口的3.5%不算少。