CDC: Coronavirus death rate likely just 0.26% - Technology & Health

CDC revises estimates for coronavirus death rate down to roughly a quarter of a percent. But virus remains deadlier than the flu.

The coronavirus fatality rate estimate has fallen, according to the latest estimates of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to 0.26%, far below previous estimates.

The updated CDC figures show a 0.4% death rate for symptomatic cases of coronavirus, down-grading the estimated fatality rate from 1% of symptomatic cases.

With the CDC now estimating that more than a third (35%) of coronavirus cases are completely asymptomatic, the total fatality rate for the coronavirus is now believed to be 0.26%.

That still makes the current coronavirus pandemic more lethal than the seasonal flu, which kills about 60,000 people in the US every year.

But the CDC’s “current best estimate” scenario pegs the lethality of the coronavirus pandemic at roughly twice that of the seasonal flu – far lower than earlier estimates, which suggested the current pandemic would likely have a fatality rate ten times that of the seasonal flu.

Three months ago, researchers at Imperial College London estimated the coronavirus pandemic would have a fatality rate of over 1%, or roughly ten times the seasonal flu.

A month later, Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and an advisor to every president since Ronal Reagan, also claimed that the virus is "10 times more lethal than the seasonal flu”.

The CDC, too, estimated a far-higher fatality rate, with the two previous estimates projecting a 1% death rate for symptomatic cases, or a total fatality rate of 0.8% and 0.5% respectively for the two previous estimates.

But with a massive increase in testing revealing more cases of the coronavirus, the CDC lowered the estimated symptomatic fatality rate to 0.4%, while adjusting the estimated percent of asymptomatic cases downward from 50% to 35%.

The total coronavirus death toll now stands at 97,686, and a total of 1,641,585 cases have been recorded.

The White House broadened its travel ban against countries hard-hit by the coronavirus by denying admission to foreigners who have been in Brazil during the two-week period before they hoped to enter the US, reported The Associated Press.

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the move is one designed to "protect our country."