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Latest figures follow the roll-out this week of expanded diagnostic criteria amid a purge of party officials in Hubei
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Total mainland cases now at more than 64,627 and deaths at 1,483
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Vietnam confirms 16th coronavirus patient
Feb 14, 2020 – China’s Hubei province, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, reported a further 4,823 cases of the disease early on Friday morning, bringing the total in the mainland to 64,627.
Deaths in the country caused by the disease, now officially known as Covid-19, reached 1,483 after the province’s health commission announced a daily increase of 116. Owen Churchill reports on SCMP.
Current as of midnight on Thursday, the figures were the second daily batch to be released since the roll-out of expanded diagnostic criteria, under which a diagnosis based on an analysis of symptoms is considered a confirmed case.
The inclusion of clinical diagnoses in the official count led to a dramatic spike in confirmed cases and deaths, appearing to confirm suspicions that the true number of cases far eclipsed the official figures of the past few weeks. The official data had been constrained by the availability of diagnostic tests.
Coronavirus updates as of 08am, HNT, Feb 14, 2020
The new monitoring protocol coincides with a purge of top party officials in Hubei, where local authorities have become a target of nationwide public fury over the government’s response to the outbreak.
Wuhan, Hubei’s capital and the site of the seafood and meat market where the contagion is thought to have broken out, reported more than 3,900 new cases and 88 more deaths on Friday.
The coronavirus has infected more than 65,200 people worldwide and spread to two dozen countries. To date, three people outside mainland China have died from the disease, in Hong Kong, the Philippines and Japan.
In the US, which recently announced its 15th case of the virus, the chief of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed on Thursday that the disease could be transmitted by carriers showing no symptoms.
Vietnam confirms 16th coronavirus patient
A 50-year-old man in Vietnam’s Vinh Phuc Province, the father of one of the infected patients, has tested positive for novel coronavirus, the Health Ministry confirmed Thursday. VNExpress, a local media reports.
The man lived in the same house in Son Loi Commune, Binh Xuyen District of the northern province with his 23-year-old daughter, Nguyen Thi Du, one of eight Vietnamese workers of Japan-based Nihon Plast Company Limited who’d been sent to Wuhan for training last November and confirmed positive for Covid-19 after coming back in January.
Vietnam declared the novel coronavirus epidemic on February 1. The country has discharged seven patients so far, including the Chinese duo father-and-son, a Nha Trang hotel staff member, Du and her three colleagues returning from training in Wuhan.
@ SCMP/ VNExpress/ Vietnam Insider