The number of deaths linked to the novel coronavirus reached 100 000 on Friday, as the tally of cases passed 1.6 million, according to a Reuters tally.
The first death came in the central Chinese city of Wuhan on Jan. 9. It took 83 days for the first 50 000 deaths to be recorded and just eight more for the toll to climb to 100 000.
The death toll now compares with that of London’s Great Plague in the mid-1660s, which killed an estimated 100 000 people, about a third of the city’s population at the time. The novel coronavirus is believed to have emerged in a Wuhan market where wild animals were sold late last year. It quickly spread through China and around the world.Friday’s figures – 100 000 deaths of out 1.6 million cases – would suggest a fatality rate of 6.25% but many experts believe the actual rate is lower given that many mild and asymptomatic cases, when infected people don’t show symptoms, are not included in case totals.
One of the largest studies of the fatality of the disease, involving 44 000 patients in China, put the rate at about 2.9%.
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