Reported coronavirus cases spike

A new diagnostic tool uncovered a sharp rise in the daily number of coronavirus cases in China, health officials said on Thursday. Officials in the hardest-hit province, Hubei, reported 242 people died on Wednesday, raising the total number of deaths to 1,367 people. Globally, the number of cases has surpassed 60,000.

What changed in the methodology? Health workers in Hubei province at first could only identify the virus by testing patients’ RNA, but results took days to process. New CT scans that reveal lung infections allow them to make a diagnosis on the spot.

Dig deeper: Foreign Policy reported on the many unanswered questions about the coronavirus outbreak, including the actual number of cases.