New COVID-19 Cases Surge by Nearly 15,000 in China ’s Hubei Province After Officials Change Classification System
The number of cases of COVID-19 has surged nearly 10-fold from the previous day in China’s Hubei Province, the epicenter of the outbreak. The number of new deaths also increased dramatically, to 242.
Officials explained the uptick Thursday by saying they had reclassified how they were diagnosing and counting cases of COVID-19. Health officials reported 14,840 new cases—reversing several days of declines in official new diagnoses in the province.
The new classification system of COVID-19 was meant to ensure that “patients can receive standardized treatment according to confirmed cases as early as possible to further improve the success rate of treatment,” according to the Hubei Province Health Commission.
The statement hinted that Hubei may have previously been under-counting the number of official cases of the coronavirus, adding that the change was “in order to be consistent with the classification of case diagnosis issued by other provinces across the country.”
Hours after the announcement of the spike in new cases, the Chinese government announced a political shakeup in Hubei. On Thursday, the Communist Party secretary of Hubei, Jiang Chaoliang, was removed from his post, according to state media. The mayor of Shanghai, Ying Yong, will replace him.
Jiang is the highest-ranking party official removed from office thus far over the outbreak. Public anger has swelled over the handling of the virus, and this week a petition calling on the na...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Michael Zennie and Amy Gunia Tags: Uncategorized China COVID-19 onetime overnight Source Type: news
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