According to health officials in China’s Hubei province, coronavirus death tolls surged by a record 242 on February 12, bringing total deaths in the province to 1310. A massive 14840 new confirmed cases were also reported in Hubei alone, dwarfing the 2015 cases reported for February 11 throughout whole of China. The surge in numbers were said to be due to new counting methods. Excluding cases confirmed using the new methods, the number of new cases rose by only 1,508 in the province.
The new reporting system created much confusions and raised questions on transparency again. Meanwhile, at the time of writing, there is no update from the National Health Commission on country-wide numbers of the Wuhan coronavirus yet, which is very unusual.
Separately, Jiang Chaoliang, Chinese Communist Party’s Hubei provincial secretary, is relieved of duty by the central committee. Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong is appointed as replacement.
