The Chinese province at the center of the novel coronavirus outbreak reported a record spike in deaths Thursday, bringing the total number to more than 1,300 infections globally.
Hubei announced an additional 242 deaths and 14,840 cases of the virus as of Thursday morning, the largest single-day rise since the epidemic began and almost 10 times the number of cases confirmed the previous day.
The government explained the spike is due to a change in how cases are tabulated.
What now counts as a confirmed case? The total will now include "clinically diagnosed cases" after rising numbers of residents complained about the difficulty in getting tested and treated for the virus.
Who falls into that category? "Clinically diagnosed cases" are those patients who demonstrate all the symptoms of the novel coronavirus but have been unable to be scientifically tested, or died before they were tested.
What effect will this have? The hope is that more people will be able to receive treatment by allowing doctors to diagnose them with the virus.
Case number confusion: The massive increase in the number of cases exposes confusion over just how to diagnose the virus globally.
Delayed diagnosis: Delays in diagnosing the virus could be significant. There are reports of patients waiting up to a week for their results, as the testing kits were sent from Hubei to a lab in Beijing. While there have been efforts to speed up the process, scientific testing of samples is difficult and time consuming, and allowing doctors to diagnose patients will enable far more people to receive treatment, including in several purpose-built hospitals dedicated to treating the virus in Wuhan.
Not just China: In the US, the CDC currently requires that all potential samples are shipped to its central laboratories for full testing.
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