Beijing faced questions today about its alleged efforts to cover up the extent of the coronavirus outbreak after it reported a huge rise in the number of deaths and infections, and fired two top officials in its worst-hit region. A surge in the number of cases and fatalities followed a change in how the authorities count sufferers in the province of Hubei, changing the definition to include those judged by a doctor to have the illness after a scan, as well as those who have clinically tested positive. Supplies of testing kits are in increasingly short supply. Under the new counting criteria, the nationwide tally jumped by 15,152 new cases yesterday and the nationwide daily death toll hit 254, the most so far. The previous