Wuhan coronavirus has finally received an official name, while the definition of a “case” has also had a makeover. Yet, worries persist that there may be many more infected than we realise.
New Name: COVID-19
The coronavirus is now called COVID-19, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general at the World Health Organization announced during a press conference held in Geneva on February 11th, 2020.
"Co" stands for coronavirus, "Vi" is for virus and "D" is for disease, Tedros explained.
Hubei Province, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak, has reported 14,840 new confirmed cases and 242 new deaths as of Wednesday, February 12; the highest increase reported in one day so far after the diagnosis criteria for confirmed COVID-19 cases were further loosened for timely treatment of more patients. Such a sudden rise put an end to the near-constant decline in the percentage increase of new cases each day.
The surge in cases has been widely explained by media worldwide. In an article published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it said, “According to experts, the number of newly confirmed cases on 12 February released by Hubei Province increased significantly because it included the 13,332 cases confirmed by clinical diagnosis. This new diagnosis standard will contribute to the targeted treatment of previously unconfirmed cases as well as the overall epidemic control.”
With the new definition in place, numbers today had returned to their trend of showing a continuous decline in the percentage increase. There were 9.7 percent more fatalities reported today.
The change in China to include what are known as "probable cases" appeared aimed at heading off complaints about the availability of tests and treatment for residents, as well as questions about whether officials have been underreporting cases. There remain concerns that there may be many more cases that we just don’t know about.
Clinically diagnosed cases are unique to Hubei statistically. The inclusion of those cases drives the surge in the number of new confirmed cases. The Hubei Provincial Health Commission said that it is starting to include clinically diagnosed cases in its figures and that 13,332 of the new cases fall under that classification. The 242 new deaths also include 135 people who were only clinically diagnosed.
Any suspected cases with pneumonia-related computerized tomography (CT) scan results are counted as clinically diagnosed cases, according to the latest version of the diagnosis and treatment scheme released by the National Health Commission. Experts said that would include those who had yet to be tested positive in the nucleic acid testing (NAT), which previously was the threshold for hospitals to receive patients and give treatment.
See how COVID-19 diagnoses have changed.
Source: China Global Television Network
The provincial health commission said the diagnosis criteria revision was made to give those who had been clinically diagnosed the timely and standard treatment in order to further improve the treatment success rate.
"These 'yet-to-test-positive' patients could easily spread the virus in society. Categorizing them as confirmed cases will lead to quarantine and hospitalization, which would be good for both the patients and the public," said Zeng Guang, chief epidemiologist of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
"It is the right step to stop the spread of the virus," Zeng addressed.
DXY.cn (Chinese : 丁香园 ; pinyin : DīngXiāngYuán), a Chinese online healthcare platform, has put together a real-time feed of the coronavirus case count as well as the latest updates, which was consulted >2 billion times in meanwhile.
The information is in Chinese, though here are some guidelines:
确诊 = Confirmed cases (red)
疑似 = Suspected cases (orange)
累计确诊 = Accumulated cases (brown)
死亡 = Dead (dark blue)
治愈 = Recovered (green)