Rohit Shishodia
The World Health Organization (WHO) has informed that on February 13, 2020, in the last 24 hours, China has reported 1,820 laboratory-confirmed cases of Coronavirus, bringing the total to 46,550. However, the UN agency did not reveal about deaths due to the virus in China.

Briefing the media on COVID-19, Dr Michael Ryan, Executive Director, WHO Health Emergencies Programme, said that in addition, China reported 13,332 clinically confirmed cases in Hubei province.

“Crucially, we understand that most of these cases relate to a period going back over days and weeks and are retrospectively reported as cases, sometimes back to the beginning of the outbreak itself. So this increase that you’ve all seen in the last 24 hours is largely down to a change in how cases are being diagnosed and reported,” added Dr Ryan.

Dr Ryan said that therefore, in other words, in Hubei province only, a trained medical professional can now classify a suspected case of COVID-19 as a clinically-confirmed case on the basis of chest imaging, rather than having to have a laboratory confirmation.