The World Health Organization has announced that the coronavirus causes the deadly flu-like illness, SARS. Klaus Stohr, a chief researcher at the organization, said the confirmation would allow researchers to refine diagnostic tests and steer a clear path to fight the disease. Meanwhile, the WHO implicitly accused the Chinese authorities of covering up the epidemic in the capital Beijing, thereby casting doubt on all the official Chinese SARS figures. China is being criticized for not coming clean about the virus when it first emerged in the southern province of Guangdong in November. However, Beijing has repeatedly insisted the epidemic was under control and belatedly started making public SARS statistics. The total global death toll from the virus stands at 161.