- Although Friday’s figures indicate a fatality rate of 6.25%, experts say that the actual rate should be lower, since the majority of the infected people don’t usually show any symptom;
- The world has over 1.6 million confirmed cases, and Latin America accounts for more than 50,500 of them.
The number of deaths linked to the novel coronavirus reached 100,000 globally on Friday, and the number of confirmed cases reached over 1.6 million. Latin America accounts for more than 50,500 cases, and just over 2,000 deaths.
According to Reuters, the death toll now compares with that of London’s Great Plague in the mid-1660s, which killed an estimated 100,000 people. But it is still far from the so-called Spanish flu, which began in 1918 and is estimated to have killed more than 20 million people in two years.
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Although Friday’s figures indicate a fatality rate of 6.25%, experts say that the actual rate should be lower, since the majority of the infected people don’t usually show any symptom. “One of the largest studies of the fatality of the disease, involving 44,000 patients in China, put the rate at about 2.9%,” reports Reuters.
Latin America is still far from the supposed peak of infection of the disease, which can be reached, according to different studies, from the second half of April.
Without the isolation measures taken by most countries in the region, a study by Imperial College London suggests that the number of deaths from Covid-19 would have passed 3.2 million.
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Experts and health authorities in the region insist that the population must remain resolute to the purpose of self-isolation. After almost a month at home, many have failed to comply with the measures.
In Brazil, according to Reuters, lockdowns in largest cities are beginning to slip, with more people leaving their homes as President Jair Bolsonaro continues to criticize the measures.
