Health and Healthcare

Bing COVID-19 Report April 23, 2020 (6:50 AM EST)

24/7 Wall St. Staff

Published: April 23, 2020 6:51 am

World Infection Total Tops 2.6 Million. Is COVID-19 Really the Deadliest Disease in America?

The Bing COVID-19 Tracker Report

Cases worldwide reached 2,628,894, as active cases rose to 1,660,117. Recovered cases were 784,986, an increase of 98,352. Fatal cases of 183,424 were higher by 5,928. At the current rate, global fatal cases will reach 200,000 by Saturday.

America

At 855,250, the number of confirmed cases in the United States is currently over four times that of any other nation. The country with the second most cases is Spain with a comparable figure of 213,024. America’s total active cases reached 728,923, up by 26,176 from the day before. Recovered cases in the United States were 78,353, or 2,834 higher. Deaths totaled 47,974, an increase of 2,601. At the present pace, fatal cases will reach 50,000 in the United States within 24 hours.

Europe Remains the Center of Outbreak Beyond the United States

The five nations with the highest case counts, beyond the United States, are still in Europe. Spain’s total number of confirmed cases is 213,024, with the fatal case total at 22,157, up 875. Active cases in Spain are 101,617, a gain of 810.

Just behind Spain, Italy has 187,327 confirmed cases. Of these, fatal cases are 25,085, higher by 437. Active cases reached 107,699, up by 427.

Confirmed cases in Germany hit 150,648. Fatal cases reached 5,315, up 229. Confirmed cases in the United Kingdom reached 133,495. Fatal cases hit 18,100, or 763 more than the previous day. Confirmed cases in France reached 119,151. Fatal cases were 21,340, higher by 544.

In all five of these large European nations, death toll increases have decelerated from a week ago.

Numbers in African Nations Remain Small Despite Huge Populations

Confirmed cases in Africa remain low, even among some of the region’s largest nations by population. Confirmed cases in Ghana number 1,154, with nine fatal cases. It has a total population of 28,313,739, larger than Australia’s 24,218,114. However, Australia has 6,649 confirmed cases and 74 deaths. With a population of 23,430,518, Cameroon has 1,163 confirmed cases and 43 fatalities.

The world’s seventh-largest nation by population, Nigeria, has an extremely small number of cases relative to its population of 185,313,910. The Bing COVID-19 tracker puts confirmed cases there at 873 and deaths at 28.

America’s South Gets Hit Harder

States in the deep South face sharply rising case counts, although totals remain well below those in the Northeast, particularly New York, the Midwest and West Coast.

Confirmed cases in Alabama have doubled in 12 days to 5,610. Deaths have reached 201, up 15 from the day before. Mississippi’s confirmed cases have risen about the same pace to 4,894. Deaths there increased by 10 in a day to 193. In Arkansas, confirmed cases number 2,392. That figure was 1,146 on April 10. Deaths in Arkansas currently number 44. Confirmed cases in South Carolina are 4,761. They were 2,792 on April 9. Deaths in South Carolina totaled 140, up by five in one day.

Is COVID-19 America’s Most Deadly Disease?

COVID-19 deaths in the United States have been described as higher than any of America’s traditionally most fatal diseases. With a death toll over 2,000 a day for the past week, COVID-19 compares with a flu death total of 153 a day in 2018, the latest year for which complete data are available, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Over the course of that year, influenza and pneumonia killed 55,672 Americans.

Alzheimer’s disease deaths averaged 333 a day in 2018, and the disease was the cause of death for 121,404 people that year. The latest forecast from the carefully followed Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington estimates that COVID-19 will kill 65,976 Americans by August 4.

The COVID-19 daily death rate is also above the CDC average reported for stroke (cerebrovascular diseases) at 401. Strokes were the cause of death for 146,383 people in 2018. The third leading cause of death in America was accidents (unintentional injuries) at 465 per day, based on an annual total of 169,936.

The second leading cause of death in America was cancer, which killed 1,641 people a day in 2018, for an annual total of 599,108. The top killer of Americans was heart disease, with a daily death rate of 1,774. The disease killed 647,457 in 2018.

While the COVID-19 daily death rates are above the deadliest diseases in America, no mainstream forecast indicates that it will cause the loss of over 150,000 people in 2020.

The death rate from COVID-19 depends on the perspective from which it is viewed. While the current pace of daily deaths from COVID-19 is unprecedented, the annual figure almost certainly will not match that of America’s deadliest diseases.