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 The sharp rise in the headline number of deaths and infections
unnerved world markets, as traders halted a recent rally in stocks
and retreated back to the safety of government bonds and gold.
Health officials in China's central province of Hubei said 242
people had died from the flu-like virus on Wednesday, the fastest
rise in the daily count since the pathogen was identified in
December.
That took total deaths in China from the newly discovered virus to
1,367, up 254 from the previous day, the National Health Commission
said.
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The spike in numbers came a day after markets were cheered when
China reported its lowest number of new cases in two weeks,
bolstering a forecast by the country's senior medical adviser that
the epidemic could end by April.
Hubei had previously only allowed infections to be confirmed by RNA
tests, which can take days to process. RNA, or ribonucleic acid,
carries genetic information allowing for identification of organisms
like viruses.
But it has begun using quicker computerised tomography (CT) scans,
which reveal lung infections, the Hubei health commission said, to
confirm virus cases and isolate them faster.
As a result, another new 14,840 cases were reported in the central
province on Thursday, from 2,015 new cases nationwide a day earlier.
But excluding cases confirmed using the new methods, the number of
new cases rose by only 1,508.
About 60,000 people have now been confirmed to have the virus, the
vast majority of them in China.
The new diagnostic procedure could explain the spike in deaths, said
Raina McIntyre, head of biosecurity research at the Kirby Institute
at the University of New South Wales.
"Presumably, there are deaths which occurred in people who did not
have a lab diagnosis but did have a CT," she told Reuters. "It is
important that these also be counted."
The new testing is only being used in Hubei, officials said.
TENTATIVE SLOWING?
Under the new system, suspected cases were being confirmed, and if
the number of deaths did not rise as fast, that would mean the
disease was less deadly than thought, said Dr Eyal Leshem of the Tel
Aviv University School of Medicine.
"The real mortality rate of the disease may be lower," Leshem said.
Consultancy Capital Economics said the surge did not necessarily
point to an acceleration in the spread of the virus but rather that
official figures had been understating its prevalence.
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"For now, the latest figures don't appear to undermine the recent
tentative signs that the spread of the virus may be slowing," it
said.
Frank Benzimara, head of Asia Equity Strategy, at Society Generale
in Hong Kong, said the new figures had not sparked panic in
financial markets: "It can be seen as an exercise of transparency."
The outbreak, which is believed to have emerged late last year from
a market in Wuhan where wildlife was traded illegally, is one of the
biggest tests facing the Chinese government in years and blame has
fallen on provincial leaders.
State media said provincial Communist Party boss Jiang Chaoliang had
been sacked as secretary of the Hubei Provincial Committee, and Ma
Guoqiang had been removed as party chief in the provincial capital
Wuhan.
CRUISE TO CAMBODIA
Media did not give a reason for the dismissals, but the two are the
most high-profile officials to be removed from duty since the
outbreak began.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday the number of
infections in China had stabilised but it was too early to say the
epidemic was slowing.
Chinese scientists are testing two antiviral drugs and preliminary
clinical trial results are weeks away, but a vaccine could take 18
months to develop.
Hundreds of infections have been reported in more than two dozen
other countries and territories, but only two people have died from
the virus outside mainland China - one in Hong Kong and one in the
Philippines.
The biggest cluster of cases outside China is on a cruise ship
quarantined off the Japanese port of Yokohama, where a further 44
cases were reported on Thursday. In all, 219 of about 3,700 people
on board have tested positive.
There was a happy ending for another cruise ship, the MS Westerdam,
which docked in Cambodia after being denied docking rights in Guam,
Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand over fears that one of
its 1,455 passengers and 802 crew might have the virus, even though
none had tested positive.
Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, remains under virtual lockdown,
and other major Chinese cities face severe restrictions.
(Reporting by Winnie Zhou Yawen Chen and Dominique Patton in
Beijing; Brenda Goh, Josh Horwitz and David Stanway in Shanghai;
Keith Zhai, d John Geddie, tom Westbrook in Singapore; James Pearson
in Hanoi, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Writing by Stephen Coates and
Robert Birsel; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Clarence
Fernandez)
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