Just when we thought things were getting better after the alleged cure for the coronavirus was found.
Source: China Daily
It’s recently been reported that Hubei, the city at the heart of China’s deadly epidemic, faced a drastic spike in recorded cases and deaths overnight, with 14,840 confirmed cases and 242 deaths announced overnight! That’s more than twice the amount of deaths recorded just a day before the abrupt and worrying rise in numbers, following reports from South China Morning Post.
This brings the global total of recorded cases to a whooping 60,107 with a worrying 1,363 deaths.
Source: South China Morning Post
Hubei’s health commission has since come forward to clarify that it has changed the diagnostic criteria to confirm cases so doctors have better understanding of how to determine whether a patient is infected with the viral outbreak, now officially termed as Covid-19.
“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”, said health authorities.
Source: Foreign Policy
This change is said to take place because of the shortage in supply of test kits that were previously the only known way of diagnosing patients. Now that the diagnostic guidelines include clinical diagnosis using CT scans and various other tests, it’s supposed to make readings on the virus more accurate.
“We have to rely on clinical diagnosis 70 to 80 percent of the time. Increasing the diagnosis of clinical cases will help us make an additional judgement on the disease”, said Tong Zhaohui, an expert in the central guidance group.
Source: Bloomberg
Medical experts have since expressed their approval of the change, including Dr Ho Pak-leung, a professional at the University of Hong Kong who said that under the previous criteria, patients died before doctors were able to conduct any tests.
These numbers may seem alarming, but if it’s a step in the right direction towards proper diagnosis, we hope a promising future that sees the end of Covid-19 comes soon.
Also read: Cleaning Your Phone Might Be The Most Effective Way To Protect Yourself From Coronavirus
