“Sounds a little nutty. Hubei province has over 50,000,000 people. That’s a couple thousand people dying per day normally. Unless I’m wrong, cremation is the norm in China, isn’t it?”
Except the rise in sulfur dioxide levels has increased substantially in recent days compared to historical levels, and it just happens to be in the vicinity of the outbreak’s epicenter, Wuhan.
And sulfur dioxide is also a product of coal. Much of China switched from coal to other fuel recently. An interruption in fuel supply could easily explain the SO2 levels.