US hospitals are preparing for 96 million coronavirus infections and nearly half a million deaths from the outbreak, leaked documents by the Business Insider have revealed.
According to a presentation hosted by The American Hospital Association (AHA) in February, ‘The spread of the deadly disease could be far worse than officials claim, with 480,000 Americans expected to die from the virus and 4.8 million hospitalized.’
Dr. James Lawler, a professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, presented the harrowing ‘best guess’ estimates of the extent of the outbreak to hospitals and health professionals as part of the AHA webinar called ‘What healthcare leaders need to know: Preparing for the COVID-19’ on February 26.
At the time of the presentation last week, there were more than 80,000 confirmed cases around the globe. This attests that hospitals need to ramp up preparations now to reduce the death toll around the United States.
At the time, the US had around 60 cases and no deaths. Fast forward just one week, and the US has more than 430 cases and 19 confirmed deaths. Worldwide, more than 100,000 people have been infected and the number of infected people has doubled in Germany Italy takes the lead.
People aged 80 and over have a 14.8% chance of dying if they contract the corona virus the slides revealed, this is due to their low immune system.
The risk declines with youth, though those aged 70-79 and 60-69 are still placed at a significant risk, with 8% and 3.6% mortality rates respectively.
In the wake of the virus spreading at an increased rate, there have been several measure to contain it and prevent people from contracting the virus one of the strongest messages being that people should really wash their hands and even avoid shaking other peoples hands.