Understanding COVID-19 new diagnostic guidelines - a message of reassurance from an internal medicine doctor in Shanghai

The change in diagnostic criteria for COVID-19 diagnosis in Hubei province caused a shift in the numbers of total cases overnight. The aim of this article is to explain the rationale for the choice of the new criteria and the meaning of the new data, from the perspective of the authors based in Shanghai, China, struck by the level of panic and emotional distress in many people that has been generated by the new data.