WUHAN - China's central Hubei province had 411 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections on Thursday, the province's health commission said on Friday (Feb 21), up from 349 cases a day earlier.
The uptick in cases reversed three days of declines. That brings the total accumulated number of confirmed cases in Hubei to 62,442. The death toll in Hubei from the outbreak reached 2,144 as of the end of Thursday, up by 115 from the previous day.
The number of new confirmed cases in the provincial capital of Wuhan, epicentre of the outbreak, stood at 319, down from 615 a day earlier and the lowest since Jan 28. Wuhan reported 99 new deaths, up from 88 on Wednesday. A total of 1,684 people in Wuhan have now died from the virus.
Chinese authorities on Thursday changed their methodology for reporting infections, creating new doubt about data they have cited as evidence their strategy is working.
Under the latest methodology, which excludes cases identified by chest X-rays, China reported fewer than 400 new cases over the past day, less than a quarter of the number it had been finding in recent days under the previous broader method.
Epidemiologists said there could be good reasons to adjust methodology to ensure best use of resources. No official tally was likely to record all cases.
Chinese officials have been pointing to evidence that new cases are declining as proof they are succeeding in keeping the virus largely contained to Hubei province and its capital, Wuhan, where the virus initially emerged.
A continued decline in the number of new cases of coronavirus infections in China is encouraging, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday, while warning that infections outside the country could still spread.
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"We are encouraged by this trend but this is no time for complacency," the WHO's director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told a briefing in Geneva.
To date, 25 other countries have reported 1,076 cases to WHO, including five in the latest affected, Iran, he said.
Tedros noted that the total was very low compared to nearly 75,000 inside China, but added: "That may not stay the same for long."
Noting that South Korean authorities have reported a total of 104 confirmed cases, including 22 on Thursday, Tedros said: "With measures they can take, which is proportionate to the public health risk they have, I think the number of cases are really manageable."
The mayor of Daegu, South Korea's fourth-largest city, urged residents to stay indoors after a spike in infections linked to a church congregation.
Meanwhile, Iran has confirmed three new coronavirus cases following the deaths of two elderly men, the health ministry told AFP on Thursday, as Iraq banned travel to and from its neighbour.