The National Health Commission of China updated its new statistics on nCoV infections, removing the calculation based on Hubei's clinical symptoms.

The new guidelines on the criteria for diagnosing corona virus cases were published yesterday by the National Health Commission of China, to eliminate differences between the calculation method of Hubei Province and other provinces across the country.

According to the new guidelines, currently reported cases will be divided into two types, including "suspected cases" and "confirmed cases". Cases of nCoV infection are only counted when there are positive results for the virus based on a nucleic acid test.

This new calculation basically abolished the statistical method released by the Hubei Provincial Health Commission on Feb. 13, which counts clinically diagnosed cases of nCoV infection in the number of cases, instead of solely based on the outcome. test results as before. Clinical diagnosis results may be based on disease symptoms or a chest x-ray.

The move has led to a spike in cases in Hubei on February 13, 10 times more than the daily reported data. However, the Shanghai Health Committee later confirmed that provinces other than Hubei did not follow this method and still calculated cases based on nucleic acid test results.

After China's National Health Commission proposed a new calculation, Hubei today recorded 349 new cases of corona virus, a sharp decline from 1,693 cases a day ago. This is also the lowest increase since January 25.

Hubei did not specify in its notice whether the sharp decline in new cases was due to this change. Initially, the province today reported 628 new infections, but later reduced it to 349. The National Health Commission explained that 279 cases were deducted for negative results when testing for nucleic acid.

The National Health Commission also reported that the number of deaths from nCoV across mainland China increased by 114, to 2,118, the lowest increase since January 23.

Asymptomatic or asymptomatic patients with corona virus infection are a challenge for public health agencies around the world to screen for carriers. According to experts, nucleic acid testing is usually only done for people who have symptoms of nCoV infection.

Some leading Chinese scientists have questioned the accuracy of nucleic acid tests. Chinese state media also said that the laboratories in Hubei were overcrowded because there were too many patients in need of testing, while necessary tools and equipment were very limited.

A team led by leading Chinese lung researcher Zhong Nanshan this week claimed to have developed an antibody test that could give faster and more accurate end results. It is not clear whether this test method has been widely used or not.

The Covid-19 epidemic broke out in Wuhan in December 2019 and has been reported in 28 countries and territories, causing 75,662 people infected and 2,126 deaths. Iran yesterday discovered the first two people infected with nCoV in the country and they died a few hours later, while Japan recorded two tourists aboard Diamond Princess also died after infection with nCoV.