The number of deaths from the novel coronavirus Covid-19 rose significantly from 242 to 1310 on Wednesday, according to authorities in the particularly severely affected Chinese province of Hubei . In addition, 14,840 new cases of infected people were registered . A drop in the infection rate had been hinted at the previous day.

According to the Health Commission, the sharp rise in new cases is due to a new method of diagnosing the coronavirus . The total number of known diseases in the province around the city of Wuhan is thus 48,206. The official total number of cases in mainland China rose to more than 59,000.

The World Health Organization (WHO) had previously warned of premature predictions of an end to the coronavirus epidemic. In the fight against the new lung disease Covid-19 , the WHO wants to speed up the search for a vaccine and effective medication. There are four possible vaccine candidates , hopefully two of which will prove promising, said WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan.

Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn believes bottlenecks in pharmaceuticals due to production downtimes in China as a result of the coronavirus epidemic are possible. "Now we also have to prepare for how we deal with it," said the CDU politician.