China’s Hubei province, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, on Friday revised the number of new cases it reported on Feb 19 to 775, from 349 previously.

Earlier in the day, provincial authorities said they would add back some cases to their tally of the disease, after they adjusted their methodology to count only cases that were detected with genetic tests, rather than with CT scans.

Officials later concluded on Friday that it was a mistake to have removed cases that were already counted. Its previous tally of 349 cases was the lowest it reported since Jan 25.

Hubei Party secretary Ying Yong on Friday ordered the cases to be added back to the tally and said that whoever removed them would be held responsible, Tu Yuanchao, a senior official at Hubei’s health commission said.

- Reuters