Coronavirus: cases have not yet peaked, Xi Jinping tells Politburo
- Battles still to be fought at the epicentre of the epidemic, president says
- Hubei province revises daily numbers up to 631 new cases following reports of jails hit by epidemic
- Recent downward trend on mainland reversed as 118 further deaths reported
Hubei province revised up its daily new infections as of Thursday, from 411 to 631. The revision was made after health authorities received reports of the cases in the province's prisons, although 51 had already been included in the original daily count. Authorities did not change the death toll for the province.
The National Health Commission said there were 889 new cases and 118 new deaths as of Thursday, which – even without accounting for the prison infections – was a sharp increase from the 394 new infections reported a day earlier. The death count on Thursday was 114. The fluctuations show the difficulty in assessing if the epidemic is peaking, according to experts.
‘Peak not yet here’
Chinese President Xi Jinping said the coronavirus epidemic had not reached its peak despite a drop in the daily number of infections.
State broadcaster CCTV quoted Xi as saying at a meeting of the Communist Party’s Politburo on Friday that the situation in Hubei was still serious.
“The battles to defend Hubei province and Wuhan should be well fought, and measures should be taken to contain the spread of the outbreak,” he said.
The meeting also said prevention measures should be properly implemented in Beijing.