Death toll from coronavirus outbreak exceeds 1,350

China’s health authorities reported on Thursday that 242 more people had lost their lives due to the deadly virus in the central province of Hubei a day earlier, raising the death toll in the epicenter of the epidemic since the beginning of the outbreak to 1,310.
The latest increase pushed the total number of deaths in mainland China to at least 1,355 and the global death toll to 1,357, with one death in Hong Kong and another in the Philippines.
Hubei’s health commission also reported a huge jump in new cases and said a further 14,840 people had been confirmed with the infection, which brings the total number of cases there to 48,206.
The global number of confirmed coronavirus cases so far has gone beyond 60,015, with the vast majority of cases being in mainland China.
The state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday that the head of the Communist Party in the province of Hubei had been removed from his post, the latest in a series of dismissals of local officials since the pathogen was identified in December last year. Earlier, the Communist Party chief of the health commission of Hubei, Zhang Jin, and its director, Liu Yingzi, had been removed.