Coronavirus death rate by country: fatality numbers compared to cases
• More than 100,000 people have been infected with the new coronavirus and 3,460 have died. About 80% of cases and deaths are in China.
• But the death rate — the number of known deaths out of the total number of confirmed cases — varies widely by country right now.
• Generally, the death rate seems to decrease as more people are tested and cases are confirmed.
• The following chart shows the death rates in countries with confirmed deaths and more than 100 cases.
The death rate from the new coronavirus is higher in the US so far than anywhere else in the world.
The rate, a basic calculation that divides the number of known deaths by the total number of confirmed cases, was about 6% in the US as of Friday morning.
Fourteen Americans have died out of less than 250 confirmed cases.
South Korea, which has the second-highest number of cases outside China, has a death rate that’s one-tenth of that.
Out of 6,593 cases, 42 people have died: o.6%.
While this variation between countries may sound concerning, the rate strongly depends on how many people get tested for the virus.
In countries like South Korea and China, which have tested hundreds of thousands of people, the death rate is lower than in, say, the US, which has tested less than 2,000.
Business Insider