Coronavirus cases rise, and a leader is fired

Coronavirus cases had seemed to be leveling off, but then new numbers showed the largest one-day increase recorded so far. There were nearly 15,000 new cases in Hubei Province alone, with 242 additional deaths. A change in diagnostic criteria could be part of the reason. Here’s the latest.

Political fallout: China’s Communist Party fired the leader of Hubei, the province at the center of the outbreak. He’ll be replaced by the mayor of Shanghai, who rose through the political ranks in the same province as Xi Jinping, China’s top leader.

Economic fallout: One of the world’s biggest technology trade shows, the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, was canceled because of the outbreak, and the Chinese Grand Prix, a Formula One race set for April, was postponed. Students have faced difficult decisions about their programs. And the cruise industry has a big challenge.