The 2019 coronavirus is about 20 times more deadly than the common flu, according to new reporting from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Chinese CDC puts the mortality rate of the coronavirus at about 2.3%, after finding that out of 44,672 cases confirmed in China, 1,023 had died by Feb. 11. The rate of seasonal flu fatalities, in comparison, hovers around 0.1%.
U.S. physicians still advise people to take regular precautions against the seasonal flu. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that there have been at least 26 million cases of the flu this season and 14,000 deaths.
However, 15 cases of the coronavirus have been reported in the United States, and an additional 14 U.S. citizens who were on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which landed in the U.S. over the weekend after a 10-day quarantine in Japan, tested positive for the illness.
The virus has not yet become a “pandemic,” according to the World Health Organization, but it has been deemed a public health emergency of international concern. The coronavirus has infected at least 72,000 so far and killed over 1,860 in China.
