And quoted from that same page...
“It is therefore very early to make any conclusive statements about what the overall mortality rate will be for the novel coronavirus, according to the World Health Organization”
Furthermore, looking at “Worldometers” data (your choice not mine)...
- Every year an estimated 290,000 to 650,000 people die in the world due to complications from seasonal influenza (flu) viruses.
- This figure corresponds to 795 to 1,781 deaths per day due to the seasonal flu.
I feel like people are being short sighted when it comes to the potential of the virus, versus the flu for which we have vaccinations and resistance, when it comes to human life.
Just because the current death toll is low it has the potential to increase rapidly.
Left
unchecked we can expect the Coronavirus to grow exponentially.
Under exponential growth 500 cases grow to more than 1 million cases after 11 doubling times. And after 10 more doubling times it would be 1 billion cases.
Based on the global WHO data up to and including 7th March 2020, the doubling time for COVID-19 is as follows:
Doubling time for the global number of cases (including China): 21 days
Doubling time for the global number of cases (excluding China): 4 days
If left
unchecked, starting with 500 and with it doubling every 4 days the whole planet could be infected in 100 days.
With the current ~3.4% fatality rate (unsure if inundated health services will see it rise)
If everyone in Europe contracts the virus, approximately 25 million people will die.
If everyone in the World contracts the virus, approximately 256 million people will die.
Worst case scenario perhaps as we will have imposed quarantines across the world to prevent the speed at which it's currently spreading, but it is needed.