Daily COVID-19 diagnoses 5x'd February 12th d/t broadened criteria
vox.com
vox.com
"In Hubei province, on February 12 health officials essentially broadened the definition of what could be counted as a case [...] trained medical professionals could classify a suspected case of Covid-19 as a confirmed one based on findings in chest imaging and a doctor’s analysis [...] a lab result was no longer necessary to consider a case confirmed. The change was made to speed up the finding of new cases. The 14,000 new cases weren’t even new [...] Many were older cases reclassified based on the new definition."
Also, expect more:
"For now, the rest of China is still using the results of lab tests to count confirmed cases, which is why the surge only appeared in Hubei. It will take time to see the real epidemic curve of Covid-19 — that is, a visual of when exactly cases became sick, not just when they were reported. Until then, we should brace ourselves for more panicked spikes and hopeful dips in this outbreak."
[0] https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/685d0ace521648f8a5b...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_2019%E2%80%932...