By the end of day Monday, the number of confirmed cases of people infected with the Wuhan coronavirus in mainland China was 4,515, according to China’s National Health Commission.

The majority of confirmed cases are in Hubei province, which is where the virus was first identified.

By the end of day Sunday, the number of cases in mainland China stood at 2,744.

That’s a jump in reported cases of nearly 65% over the course of a day.

During the 2002 and 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), there were 8,098 confirmed cases worldwide from November 2002 to July 2003, with 774 deaths.

While the current outbreak does not appear to be as deadly as SARS, it may be spreading more rapidly. That could be due to being more contagious, or the increased interconnectedness of both China and the world than in 2003.

As of mid-March 2003, roughly a month after the World Health Organization was first alerted to SARS by Chinese authorities, and three months after the first cases were detected in China, the number of confirmed cases worldwide stood at around 3,200, with 159 confirmed deaths.

Information release

On Monday, the mayor of Wuhan admitted that people were «not satisfied» with the rate that his government released information on the coronavirus, adding that it was «not disclosed in a timely fashion.»

Mayor Zhou Xianwang told state-run CCTV that, «we didn’t effectively use that information» in its response.

He explained that under Chinese law on infectious diseases, the local government first needs to report the outbreak to the national health department, and then get approval from the State Council — the country’s chief administrative body, chaired by Premier Li Keqiang — before they can make an announcement.

The mayor added that he took responsibility for the «unprecedented» decision to lock down the city.