Health officials in China’s hard-hit central province of Hubei reported that 242 more people died from the coronavirus, officially named COVID-19, on Wednesday - the highest in a single day and more than twice the previous record high - pushing the death toll across the country above 1,300.

The province’s health commission also reported a huge jump in new cases, saying a further 14,840 people had been confirmed with the infection over the 24-hour period to midnight on Wednesday (16:00 GMT).

Hubei is at the centre of the outbreak, which is thought to have originated in a now-closed seafood market in the capital of Wuhan late last year.

In a statement, the commission said that it had begun including cases diagnosed through new clinical methods, and had revised its old data and suspected cases. The latest death toll included more than 100 clinically diagnosed cases.

“Before this doctors had to use one particular type of testign kit and there have been doubts about the kit,” Al Jazeera’s Katrina Yu said from Beijing.

“Now the government has given doctors more discretion on how they can diagnose cases and that’s why there has been this huge jump.”

State media said last week that Hubei would start recognising computerised tomography (CT) scan results as confirmation of infections, allowing hospitals to isolate patients more quickly 

Total cases in the province have now reached 48,206, the commission data showed.

China’s national health commission is expected to provide an update on countrywide infections later on Thursday.

At least 25 countries have confirmed cases of the virus and several nations have evacuated their citizens from Hubei. Two deaths have been recorded outside mainland China - one in Hong Kong and one in the Philippines.

Source: Al Jazeera / Agencies