The number of confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in China has skyrocketed to almost 12,000 as of Saturday, surpassing the official count during the SARS epidemic. But the true number of infections may be even higher, as health workers struggle to catch up with the disease.
A shortage of testing kits and overworked hospital staff are straining China's health system, hampering efforts to accurately track how many people have the pathogen. The result is a hectic and imprecise process that's creating bottlenecks as health experts attempt to pin down the scope of a disease that has claimed more than 200 lives.
The challenge of keeping up with the tally can be seen in Hubei, at the center of the outbreak.