As countries grapple with measuring the scale of the coronavirus pandemic, concerns are growing that some are being less forthcoming about the true scope of their outbreaks, including China, North Korea and Indonesia.

China on Tuesday announced more than 1,500 coronavirus cases that had not previously been made public, giving in to pressure for greater transparency nearly two weeks after officials there first announced zero new local infections.

Questions about the accuracy of China’s numbers have circulated since the start of the pandemic there, even as the country has touted its apparent success in bringing the outbreak under control. The 1,541 newly announced cases were people who had tested positive but were asymptomatic, according to an official at China’s National Health Commission.

China had not previously included asymptomatic patients in its public tallies of confirmed cases, even though the World Health Organization recommends doing so, and many within China and abroad had expressed fear about the true scale of the epidemic.

It was not immediately clear whether the 1,541 figure represented the total number of asymptomatic infections detected in China, or merely a fraction. The South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong-based newspaper, recently reported that asymptomatic cases could number as many as 43,000, or one-third of China’s total case count, citing classified government data.

In the case of North Korea, many observers doubt its claims to not have a single coronavirus case, though some attribute it to a lack of testing equipment. Others accuse the government of hiding an outbreak​ to preserve order.