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China's Hubei province announced 242 new deaths from the novel coronavirus Thursday morning, twice as many as on the previous day. New infections there jumped by more than 14,000.
Until now, only infections confirmed by specialized testing kits were considered accurate. But those kits have been in such short supply � and so many sick people have gone untested � that the authorities in Hubei have started counting patients whose illness have been screened and identified by doctors.
The result was a sudden � and large � spike in the overall tally for the coronavirus: more than 1,300 people killed and well over 50,000 infected.