More than 1 million people worldwide have been confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus but the actual number could be as high as 10 million, said Australia’s top doctor on Friday.
Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy gave the estimate during a press conference with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in Canberra, stating the disparity is due to some countries’ inability to test.
“Worldwide, we’ve now passed a million reported cases of COVID-19,” he said. “We believe that the true number is probably five or 10 times as much as that because we know that judging by the death rate, the testing rate in many countries, they are not detecting all the cases. There are some countries that don’t have the capacity to test.”
Australia has more than 5,300 cases and 27 deaths due to the virus, but he is sure of those numbers as he is “pretty confident” Australia has “the best testing” in the world.
Murphy said the coronavirus growth rate in Australia has been dropping every day due to measures the government has implemented, including strict social distancing guidelines and the closing of its borders.
Asked whether he trusts China’s confirmed numbers, Murphy replied the only numbers he has “total faith in are the Australian numbers.”
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