The number of deaths in China's central Hubei province from the coronavirus outbreak has topped 1,300 with nearly 50,000 infected as health chiefs introduce new clinical methods.
Authorities said the figure rose by 242 on Wednesday to 1,310.
A further 14,840 cases had been detected in Hubei, the epicentre of the outbreak, taking the total in the province to 48,206, officials confirmed.
The new deaths were more than twice the prior provincial daily record of 103 set on Monday.
The number of new cases in Hubei, the epicentre of the outbreak, also jumped to 14,840 as the commission said that it had begun including people who are diagnosed through new clinical methods from Thursday.
It also said it had revised its old data and suspected cases. The latest death toll included over 100 clinically diagnosed cases.
State media said last week that Hubei will start recognising computerised tomography (CT) scan results as confirmation of infections, allowing hospitals to isolate patients more quickly.
Reuters reported last month that a lack of RNA test kits in Hubei's capital Wuhan may have delayed patients from being properly diagnosed and treated, contributing to the spread of the virus in the early days of the outbreak.
Total cases in the province have now reached 48,206, showed the commission data.
This comes after reports of the existence of a secret bat cave tucked away deep in China's wilderness which could hold the answers scientist need to finally crack the virus enigma.
Its exact location is a secret, but several years ago the group of scientists who studied the cave somewhere in the Yunnan province made a curious discovery in the blood of people living nearby.
They found the cave was full of bats carrying SARS-related coronaviruses - and blood tests on residents living nearby revealed they appeared to have immunity.
A woman, meanwhile, has become the first person to be diagnosed with coronavirus in London.
The patient, who is understood to have developed symptoms after arriving at Heathrow Airport from China, is being treated at a hospital in the capital.
It is understood she called NHS 111 with her symptoms and then tested positive.
The deadly disease has killed more than 1,000 and infected thousands more around the world.
Chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty has confirmed the ninth case of coronavirus in the UK, but not revealed where the patient was diagnosed.
He said: "One further patient in England has tested positive for novel coronavirus (COVID-19), bringing the total number of cases in the UK to nine.
"This virus was passed on in China and the patient has now been transferred to a specialist NHS centre at Guy's and St Thomas' in London."
It comes as all 83 people in quarantine in a British hospital were told they have tested negative for coronavirus.
The Brits, who were flown back from China and taken in coaches to Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral, Merseyside, will now leave the facility immently.
They've stayed in the accommodation for the past fortnight.
A spokesman for the Department of Health said the "quarantine is expected to end tomorrow".
Mirror Online previously told how their flights landed at RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, and the Brits were quickly whisked onto coaches for the 200-mile trip north.
Officials are currently trying to trace 12 patients who were treated by two GPs - one of whom is Catriona Greenwood - who have tested positive for coronavirus.
Between them, the two doctors worked in four different places in East and West Sussex - a nursing home, an A&E department and two GP practices.
The pair are now in isolation, and efforts to trace those that came into contact with them are ongoing.
Meanwhile, two prisoners in a UK jail were tested negative for the disease today.
A British man who unknowingly spread coronavirus to at least 11 people has been discharged from hospital after making a full recovery.
Businessman Steve Walsh, the man at the centre of a UK outbreak of Covid-19, is no longer contagious, NHS strategic incident director Professor Keith Willett said.
