COVID death rate officially at 5.5 per cent

If you have been wondering whether COVID19 is any more dangerous than the annual influenza season, the numbers tell the story.

According to Johns Hopkins University data on Monday morning there were about 1.3 million cases of COVID across the world and about 71,000 people have died so far. That equates to a 5.5 per cent rate of death for those diagnosed with the virus.

In Canada, as of Monday morning, there were 15,822 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and of those 293 have died. That is a 1.9 per cent rate of death.

It is worth noting that other parts of the world had a head start on COVID-19 and medical experts believe we could be seeing similar numbers here in the coming weeks.

In Alberta, there were 1,250 people officially identified as having COVID-19 and 23 deaths. That is a 1.8 per cent rate of death.

According to the Alberta Health Services flu numbers released on April 2 there were 8,448 laboratory confirmed cases in Alberta since August 25, 2019. There have been 38 deaths equating to a 0.4 per cent.

The number of influenza cases in Alberta each year varies and some strains have been more virulent than others. Historically the influenza data is provided on a weekly basis so it is not possible to compare the death rate with the exact number of COVID-19 cases currently in Alberta.

The spread of COVID19 began in China in January and then to other countries in Europe first. Canada is still to see the full extent of its impact.