- The new coronavirus has killed more than 319,000 people around the world.
- It’s extremely contagious and spreads from person to person easily through close contact.
- The most severe coronavirus cases often include difficulty breathing and can require hospitalization, in which patients may be hooked up to ventilators to blow more oxygen into their lungs.
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The novel coronavirus has already killed more than 4,600 people in China, 32,000 in Italy, 27,700 in Spain, and it isn’t done yet.
In the Americas, now the epicenter of this global pandemic, more than 1.5 million coronavirus cases have been diagnosed to date in the US alone, where upwards of 90,000 people have died so far.
As of May 19, here’s how the death count of COVID-19 compared with other pandemics that have spread far and wide, with devastating consequences:
COVID-19 is extremely contagious and spreads easily from person to person through close contact.
It's too early to calculate the overall death rate from the viral illness, but so far the most severe coronavirus cases often include some difficulty breathing, and many of those require hospitalization. In intensive care, patients may be hooked up to ventilators, which help blow more oxygen into a person's lungs.
Update: This post was originally published on April 1, 2020. It was updated last on May 19.
