The second wave of the coronavirus global pandemic is bringing a new set of statistics ripe for analysis. Despite new cases pushing upward worldwide, numbers indicate the virus has a declining death rate.
In a study published in “Critical Care Medicine,” Dr. John Dennis of the University of Exeter Medical School in England, said the decreasing death rate “is not simply due to younger, or previously healthier, people being admitted to critical care. “A number of factors are likely to be at play here, including improved understanding of how to manage COVID-19 amongst doctors, and the introduction of effective treatments.”
In a CNN story, data in a report from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) reflects a similar pattern in the UK, France, Spain, Germany and other European countries.
The death rate dropped in New York, too, according to a study published on the Journal of Hospital Medicine site. The analysis of data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by a team of NYU researchers shows that, in the U.S., “6.7% of cases resulted in death in April, compared with 1.9% in September.”
The CNN story said that in Europe, the median age of those infected was 54 from January to May, and only 39 in June and July, according to the ECDC. Dr. Julian Tang, clinical virologist and honorary associate professor at the University of Leicester, who added a warning to those who believe the death rate numbers are unanimously good news.
“There is a risk of complacency,” he said. “The elderly and the vulnerable will still die from Covid-19-related complications … but this may not be noticed if all age groups with COVID-19 are examined together.”
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