Coronavirus deadlier than flu as over 3% of those infected have died while flu kills only 1%
Over 3% of the global population fighting COVID-19 has succumbed to the infection — the earlier estimate put the death rate at over 2%.
"Globally, about 3.4% of reported COVID-19 cases have died," said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO). Earlier, WHO said that the death rate hovered between 0.7% and 4%, depending on the quality of health care in a country.
In the early days of the outbreak, scientists calculated that the virus was killing 2.3% of those infected worldwide. It is now 3.4% — and it could change as more cases pop up.
Lessons from China
Influencing the rates of coronavirus death are age, sex and other health conditions. In China, people over 80 had the highest mortality: 21.9% of those infected have died.
As for sex, men were twice as likely to die. While 4.7% of men died from the infection, the death rate among women stood at 2.8%.
Having other health conditions could also heighten the risk of death. Patients with heart disease, respiratory disease or cancer had a higher death rate than healthy adults.
So far, COVID-19 has affected more than 90,000 people around the world, killing over 3,100 people. Among these, China has reported 80,270 positive cases and 2,981 deaths.
Fatality rate changed over time in China
According to a top Chinese health official, Liang Wannian, between 3 to 4% of coronavirus patients have died. China's Center for Disease Control found that the fatality rate in the rest of China is at 0.4%.
Location and the intensity of spread have a bearing on the death rate. According to the WHO-China Joint Mission on Coronavirus Report, about 5.8% of the infected population in Wuhan have died, as opposed to 0.7% in other areas in China.
China witnessed more deaths in the early stages of the outbreak: from 17.3%, the death rate has fallen to 0.7% for patients falling sick after February 1, 2020.
This drop can be attributed to the fact Wuhan suffered the first and major blow. "Wuhan started fast and early. People didn't know what we were dealing with. We were learning how to treat this," Dr Bruce Aylward of the WHO said.
So with the medical staff learning more about the virus, they knew how to keep patients alive. The other reason that could explain the earlier high death rate was "was just the sheer scale of the numbers," said Aylward.
Also contributing to the declining death rates in China was that medical workers began catching mild cases, thereby bringing down the death rate.
Coronavirus more deadly than seasonal flu
Coronavirus does not spread as efficiently as seasonal flu. However, it is more dangerous: COVID-19 causes more severe disease than seasonal influenza. explained Tedros.
The "seasonal flu generally kills far fewer than 1% of those infected," Tedros said.
Another reason for concern is that, unlike the flu, we have neither vaccines nor proven antivirals against COVID-19. "However, clinical trials of therapeutics are now being done, and more than 20 vaccines are in development," Tedros said.
He added: "To summarize, COVID-19 spreads less efficiently than flu, the transmission does not appear to be driven by people who are not sick, it causes more severe illness than flu, there are not yet any vaccines or therapeutics, and it can be contained – which is why we must do everything we can to contain it. That is why the WHO recommends a comprehensive approach."
Response depends on how protected healthcare workers are
The WHO has already provided personal equipment aid like masks and gloves to 27 countries. However, rising demand, panic buying, hoarding and misuse of protective gear are putting lives at risk from the new coronavirus and other infectious diseases, warns the WHO.
More specifically, health care workers are at greater risk: they rely on personal protective equipment to protect themselves and their patients from being infected and infecting others.
“Without secure supply chains, the risk to healthcare workers around the world is real. Industry and governments must act quickly to boost supply, ease export restrictions and put measures in place to stop speculation and hoarding. We can't stop COVID-19 without protecting health workers first," Tedro explained.
WHO also highlighted that each month, medical workers need at least 89 million medical masks, 76 million examination gloves and 1.6 million goggles.
Costs are shooting up: prices of surgical masks have increased six-fold, N95 respirators have more than tripled, and gowns cost twice as much, Tedros said.
In response, the WHO has urged manufacturers to ramp up production, by increasing manufacturing by 40% to meet rising global demand.