China Reported a Huge Increase in New COVID-19 Cases. Here ’s Why It’s Actually a Step in the Right Direction

Officials in China’s Hubei province revealed Thursday that new cases of COVID-19 had surged nearly 10-fold from the day before—reversing days of declines that experts said were a positive sign for the containment of the virus. The number of deaths increased dramatically, as well, to 242. The jump in new cases—more than 14,800 in the province at the epicenter of the outbreak—is due to a change in the criteria for counting diagnoses of the virus. Observers say this could be a step in the right direction and lead to a better picture of the situation in the province at the epicenter of the outbreak. However, concerns remain about the transparency of the data from Chinese authorities. Previously, only patients that had received positive results from a laboratory test were included in the publicly reported case count. Confirmed cases will now be based on clinical diagnosis, including the use of CT scans. These were previously only counted as “probable” infections. That means that doctors will have more discretion to give patients an immediate diagnosis, instead of waiting for the results of a laboratory test. “In terms of monitoring the progression of the outbreak of infections, it’s quite a sensible idea to also report probable cases,” Ben Cowling, a professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Hong Kong, tells TIME. He says that he believes that the numbers reported by Chinese officials may have been u...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized China COVID-19 onetime overnight Source Type: news