Coronavirus: Virus death toll in Hubei surges by 242 in one day

The Chinese province at the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak has reported a record rise in the death toll.

The Chinese province at the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak has reported a record rise in the death toll, as global health experts warned the epidemic could get far worse before it is brought under control.

On Thursday, health officials in Hubei province said 242 people had died from the flu-like virus, the fastest rise in the daily count since the pathogen was identified in December, and bringing the total number of deaths in the province to 1310. The previous record rise in the toll was 103 on February 10.

The grim new tally came a day after China had reported its lowest number of new coronavirus cases in two weeks, bolstering a forecast by Beijing’s senior medical adviser for the outbreak there to end by April.

But the 2015 new confirmed cases reported in mainland China on Wednesday was dwarfed by the 14,840 new cases reported in Hubei alone on Thursday, when provincial officials said they had adopted a new methodology for counting infections.

Top officials axed

The Chinese government replaced its top official in Hubei following the dramatic surge of infections and fatalities.

Chinese state media reported that Ying Yong — current Mayor of Shanghai — has been appointed as the Party’s chief of Hubei Province, replacing Jiang Chaoliang, according to a decision by the Communist party’s Central Committee.

In another major personnel change from China the party boss of the coronavirus epicentre of Wuhan — Ma Guoqiang — has been relieved of duty/ He became the second top communist official to be scrapped.

According to China’s state media Global Times, Wang Zhonglin, a member of the Standing Committee of Shandong Provincial Party Committee and Party Chief of Jinan, replaced Ma.

Asian markets wobble

Asian stock markets wobbled and the safe-havens of the Japanese yen, gold and bonds rose after the Hubei numbers were reported.

Australian virologist Ian Mackay said the dramatic increase in reported cases in China were likely to be explained by expanded testing capabilities.

“I think what these numbers are showing is that there’s been a big catch-up on testing and reporting rather than a whole bunch of new cases,” Professor Mackay from the University of Queensland said. “It’s just delayed reporting. Recently China said they could test around 6000 a day, and they were going to try and increase that. This is likely to be some of that coming down the pipeline as they clear the backlog of specimens and clear the backlog of reporting from all the different provinces that are using the kits.

“Somebody will have to be centrally collating that data and putting those numbers into these reports and even on a small scale that can be quite a job, in this case it’s a massive job.

“I think we might even see cases continue to increase for a little while if that’s what’s going on. Now we’re going to start getting a better idea of how many cases there are in China and that’s going to help case fatality rate calculations and also things like the reproductive number calculations.”

Another explanation for the spike in numbers is a changed definition in China of which cases are officially reported.

The health commission in Hubei said in its daily statement on Thursday morning that it had broadened the diagnostic criteria used to confirm cases.

“From today on, we will include the number of clinically diagnosed cases into the number of confirmed cases so that patients could receive timely treatment,” Hubei’s health authority said in the statement.

The change in definition comes as a World Health Organisation team led by Canadian epidemiologist Bruce Aylward visits Beijing to gather information on the virus to better co-ordinate the response to the global health emergency, which has infected more than 60,000 people worldwide, killed 1365 people and spread to at least 24 countries.

The statement was light on details about the new criteria.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he was considering extending a travel ban preventing Chinese visitors and students from entering Australia. “The current ban extends to this weekend and we will be consider those issues on the best medical advice,” the PM said on Thursday, ahead of a meeting of the national security committee.

Results from Chinese trials testing a combination of antiviral drugs used to treat HIV against the new coronavirus are due in weeks, but experts say a vaccine could still be months away.

Earlier on Thursday, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned any apparent slowdown in the spread of the epidemic should be viewed with “extreme caution”.

“This outbreak could still go in any direction,” he told a briefing in Geneva.

The spike in cases comes as Indonesian health authorities urgently retrace the steps of a tourist who travelled from Wuhan to Bali last month and who has tested positive for coronavirus on their return.

The Bali Health Agency says it will investigate the Chinese tourist’s movements while in Bali after he tested positive for coronavirus on February 5 after he arrived in Huainan city in Anhui province in China.

Bali Health Agency, Ketut Suarjaya, said the agency was currently trying to figure out the travel history and the activities of the patient, identified only as Jin, according to information obtained by The Jakarta Post.

“We have to check on the dates when he was in Bali. The incubation period of the coronavirus is 14 days. We don’t know yet where exactly he was infected. We don’t know yet whether he was infected with the coronavirus before he went to Bali. There is a possibility that he got the virus when he returned to China,” Suarjaya said.

Indonesia has criticised a US study questioning why the world’s fourth most populous nation had not yet recorded a case of coronavirus, calling the findings an insult and insisting it was on high alert.

With AFP, Reuters