2 new coronavirus cases in Shanghai, diagnostic standards unchanged

Two more coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the city, and another 20 suspected cases ruled out, the Shanghai Health Commission said on Thursday afternoon.

So far, the city has reported a total of 315 infections and ruled out 1,411 suspected cases.

The newly diagnosed patients are both from Wuhan in Hubei Province, the heart of the current epidemic. They came to Shanghai on January 27 and 28 respectively and were sent to special quarantine centers for medical observation.

Among the 315 confirmed patients, aged between 7 months and 88 years old, a total of 101 patients are from outside the city — 69 from Wuhan, 23 from other cities in Hubei Province, three from Jiangsu Province, two from Anhui Province, and one each from Heilongjiang, Hunan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces.

The commission said 236 patients are stable, six are in serious condition and 10 are critical. Sixty-two patients have recovered and been discharged from hospital. There has been only one local fatality. Another 202 suspected cases are undergoing tests.

The commission also released information about residential complexes and public venues visited by seven patients who were confirmed with infection on Wednesday.

“All close contacts of these patients have been put into quarantine and observation, and relevant places have been disinfected,” Zheng Jin, a spokeswoman for the commission, told a news briefing on Thursday.

She also said that diagnostic guidelines for coronavirus patients in Shanghai haven't changed, which means that all infected cases should be based on results from nucleic acid tests.

Hubei has started to recognize clinically diagnosed cases, which means that computerized tomography scan results can also be used to confirm coronavirus infection.

“Diagnostic standard for regions outside Hubei remains the same,” she said,