Death By Corona: What Are the Numbers?

   This morning, we learned that actor Tom Hanks and his wife have contracted COVID-19 infection. Indeed, 43 famous persons have already been affected by the disease, including six Iranian leaders and four European soccer players. We might speculate that this reflects a single exposure event in Iran…or the fact that European athletes travel frequently in a high-incidence environment. Perhaps similar reasoning can be used to explain the striking variation in coronavirus death rates between countries. As of March 12, 126,258 cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide; and 4,368 died of the disease – a case-fatality ratio (CFR) of 3.6%. This figure varies widely from country-to-country. Indeed, The CFR in Mainland China is 3.9% – vs. 3.2% of all other countries combined. Only 1.0% of infected passengers aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship died of the disease. Among countries reporting more than 500 cases to date, the CFR (in descending order) is Italy 6.6%, Iran 4.3%, Spain 2.8%, United States 2.8%, Japan 2.5%, France 2.1%, United Kingdom 1.7%, South Korea 0.8%, Netherlands 0.8% and Switzerland 0.7%. Fatal infection is notably absent among the Scandinavian countries: Sweden 0.2%, Norway 0%, Denmark 0%. Finland, which has experienced 109 cases, has also reported zero mortality. The CFR in each country is largely determined by how the disease is identified, defined and reported. The quality, training professionalism and available resources available Health-C...
Source: GIDEON blog - Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Tags: Epidemiology Events General Source Type: blogs