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Global Coronavirus Cases Exceed 15 Million (reuters.com) 174

Global coronavirus infections surged past 15 million on Wednesday, according to a Reuters tally, with the pandemic gathering pace even as countries remain divided in their response to the crisis. From a report: In the United States, which has the highest number of cases in the world with 3.91 million infections, President Donald Trump warned: "It will probably, unfortunately, get worse before it gets better." The top five countries with the most cases is rounded out by Brazil, India, Russia and South Africa. But, the Reuters tally shows the disease is accelerating the fastest in the Americas, which account for more than half the world's infections and half its deaths. Globally, the rate of new infections shows no sign of slowing, according to the Reuters tally, based on official reports.

After the first COVID-19 case was reported in Wuhan, China, in early January, it took about 15 weeks to reach 2 million cases. By contrast, it took just eight days to climb above 15 million from the 13 million reached on July 13. Health experts stress that official data almost certainly underreports both infections and deaths, particularly in countries with limited testing capacity. The official number of coronavirus cases at 15,009,213 is at least triple the number of severe influenza illnesses recorded annually, according to World Health Organization data, while the death toll of more than 616,000 in seven months is close to the upper range of yearly influenza deaths.

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Global Coronavirus Cases Exceed 15 Million

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  • by Thelasko ( 1196535 ) on Wednesday July 22, 2020 @09:52AM (#60318603) Journal
    That's 0.2% of the world population for those of us that like useful statistics.
    • Re:0.2% (Score:5, Funny)

      by Fly Swatter ( 30498 ) on Wednesday July 22, 2020 @09:55AM (#60318615) Homepage
      Hey that's more than I earn on my savings account. Sounds significant.
    • That's not a very useful statistic either. Neither the total number nor the percentage gives any insight whatsoever to how it's spreading in rural vs urban vs truly remote areas.

      • Re:0.2% (Score:4, Informative)

        by CubicleZombie ( 2590497 ) on Wednesday July 22, 2020 @10:03AM (#60318653)

        That's not a very useful statistic either. Neither the total number nor the percentage gives any insight whatsoever to how it's spreading in rural vs urban vs truly remote areas.

        I'm in a suburban/rural county of 48,000 people. There have been 500 positive cases. 8 deaths - all people over 80. I still don't personally know anyone who has/had it.

        And my state counts any death if the person had any covid-19 symptoms, regardless of their test results.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by backslashdot ( 95548 )

          If the person would have been alive today if they didn't have covid-19, it caused there death. Yes other things contributed, but if covid-19 didn't exist the person would likely still be alive -- that should count as a covid-19 death. Simple statistics can fish that out we have the average deaths per day and we know that number has increased.

        • and the side effects will start catching up on those 492. It damages the brain, and the brain by and large doesn't heal. Same for parts of the lungs it attacks. It's likely to take 10 years off their lives. Maybe more depending on the severity of the case.

          But by then the election cycle will be over right, so it's all good. Just like Wall Street all that matters is now. Right now.
        • Calling this "Informative" without a shred of evidence is rich. I'm sure many doctors/medical examiners are falsifying death certificates (misdemeanor or felony, depending) in the hope that the mega-corp they work for will get a higher reimbursement. Gosh, who among us wouldn't love to roll the dice on a criminal conviction if it meant the giant organization we work for has a chance at making more money!
        • And my state counts any death if the person had any covid-19 symptoms, regardless of their test results.

          COVID-19 only causes death in 3 specific ways. Your state isn't as dumb as you make it sound.

      • That's not a very useful statistic either. Neither the total number nor the percentage gives any insight whatsoever to how it's spreading in rural vs urban vs truly remote areas.

        Assuming you are in the US, I think this map [nytimes.com] is what you want. (make sure you delete cookies for NYTimes.com)

      • by ranton ( 36917 ) on Wednesday July 22, 2020 @10:18AM (#60318731)

        It is pretty useful to show how things are just getting started worldwide. We are at the end of the beginning not the beginning of the end. And if we don't get lucky with a good vaccine or therapeutics in the next 6 months or so, things will get much worse before they get better.

      • I hope this fact doesn't surprise you, a single metric doesn't paint the whole picture. If you want more details you'll have to spend 5 minutes looking for them.

      • by hey! ( 33014 )

        I don't think we have any way of quantifying what's happening in rural or remote areas except in very rich countries. Nor do I think we have any idea of what it's doing in the vast urban shantytowns of the developing world. What chance do you think there is that public health authorities can quantify what's going in a place like this [wikimedia.org]? Or this [goo.gl]?

    • This is not a "statistic" (a "statistic" is something that is computed from the values in a sample), and it isn't very useful by itself, as it isn't telling us anything more than the absolute number.

    • And it will stay at a low rate right up to the point when mocking a pandemic ends with overwhelmed medical resources and "crisis standards" are instituted.

      At that point you will see that all that disregard looks more like mass graves and an unraveling of our social structure.
    • We spend tens of billions of dollars on border security and police when TOTAL homicides per year are "only" 16,000 .. that's like .004% of the US population.

    • Wouldn't a better metric be "active cases"?

      Total cases will always go up, but active cases would give you an idea of how bad it "currently" is and whether the pandemic is growing or shrinking and how quickly.

  • It looks like COVID-19 is actually the missing Americapox [youtube.com]! /sarcasm
  • by SchroedingersCat ( 583063 ) on Wednesday July 22, 2020 @10:09AM (#60318685)
    "Coronavirus Cases" is a meaningless number as it is off by 10-100x to total infections depending on number of factors like testing capacity, testing criteria and the criteria of recognizing presumed infections. There are countries with large "pneumonia outbreaks" and few "coronavirus cases".
  • by ranton ( 36917 ) on Wednesday July 22, 2020 @10:13AM (#60318699)

    It's important to point out right now this growth is primarily coming from just three countries (US, Brazil, India) who accounted for about 63% of new worldwide cases yesterday (quickest metric for me to find). They also make up 55% of all confirmed deaths. The ability of each country to combat this pandemic has a big impact on the amount of people are going to die. These three countries had an average of 1.66 deaths per million people yesterday, while the rest of the world had 0.43 deaths per million. When looking at deaths / cases per million the US and Brazil are in a league of their own, with 4.6 deaths per million. No country can be expected to do a perfect job, but it is quite clear which countries are killing tens of thousands of their citizens through lack of strong leadership.

  • Preliminary Data Suggests Low-Dose Radiation May Be Successful Treatment For Severe Covid-19 [forbes.com] (preliminary data for Covid-19, but decades of evidence for the effectiveness in treating pneumonia)

    Millions of lives could have been saved, if not for the misinformed [forbes.com] crusade against radiation.

    • No. Preliminary data suggests many many things later proven to be false. "Malaria medicine cures covid19!"

      A very small trial group does not prove a treatment anyway. Get a clue. Yet you're already blathering "millions of lives could have been saved!"

    • Think about the mechanism of action for why radiation helps in the situations it helps in and then consider whether it is a good idea if there is any alternative whatsoever.
  • So basically, it's the first inning and the first batter hasn't even swung at the first pitch yet.

    Treatments are bringing down the death rate. Social distancing is slowing things down.

    Sweden- which was shooting for herd immunity by June 1st, has 78,504 reported cases. So maybe 400,000 total cases. 5,667 reported deaths... that's 7,700 cases per million and 561 deaths per million (passing Italy at 580 deaths per million soon).

    They'll need another 8 million cases to reach herd immunity-- 800,000 cases per

    • Thank the protestors for the increase in the USA. While the protests did not spread it all of those people going out killed off the stay at home and stay apart that was the message before than.
      • So people refusing to wesr masks and believing that the virus is a hoax is definitely not the reason?

        • the spread since may/june has been in people in the 20-30. they are the ones not wearing masks and ignoring the recommendations to stay seperate.
          the protestors just said that the governement saying wear a mask and seperate was a lie and could be ignored. and since then they have.
          • Right, Trump and several prominent republicans refusing wearing a mask had nothing to do with it either, everything is the protestors' fault. They have probably brought the coronavirus from China in the first place.

    • by serbanp ( 139486 )

      We literally could have gotten this under control by now as over 2 dozen other countries show

      There is one thing I can't understand about the people suffering from TDS: what exactly could the POTUS do or should have done to fundamentally improve the outcome?

      He is just the lightning rod for his detractors and shiny beacon for his followers, but his effective power to change the outcome is limited to EOs, and, no matter how he's using them, gets pasted for it.

      If you remember the Civic studies from when you attended school, *all* critical decisions impacting the COVID-19 pandemic outcome reside with th

  • What do the #s for influenza look like in 2020?

    • In Texas, specifically in more heavy liberal cities, they have increase above the normal rate however the hospitals reporting that had no COVID deaths.
    • What do the #s for influenza look like in 2020?

      Globally, influenza activity was reported at lower levels than expected for this time of the year. In the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere, influenza activity returned to inter-seasonal levels while in the temperate zones of the southern hemisphere, the influenza season has not commenced.

      https://www.who.int/influenza/... [who.int]

      Hopefully places taking precautions to limit the spread of SARS-2 will have the follow on effect of reducing influenza numbers as well.

  • by kbahey ( 102895 ) on Wednesday July 22, 2020 @01:41PM (#60319853) Homepage

    The BBC did an analysis of the USA vs. other countries, and why did they mess up their re-opening [bbc.com].

    The summary is that a country/province can re-open the economy when certain benchmarks are met:

    a) What is the number of new positive cases per 100,000? Must be below 4/100,000
    b) What is the number of tests per 100,000 residents? It must be 150/100,000
    c) What percentage of total tests is coming back positive? Must be below 5%

    There are other factors, including:
    d) A two week drop in cases,
    e) Having enough ICU beds to cope with the new cases after reopening

    Why are the above guidelines important? Because it means the difference between what is happening now in Europe (all reopening), vs. what is happening in many USA states.

The 11 is for people with the pride of a 10 and the pocketbook of an 8. -- R.B. Greenberg [referring to PDPs?]

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