Paris, Feb 22 (AFP/APP): Researchers want to know everything about the latest coronavirus, from its mortality rate to its origins, incubation period and much more, and they still have blanks to fill in. – Mortality rate? – COVID-19, as the disease is known, is more lethal than the average seasonal flu, but less so than previous epidemics stemming from coronaviruses. We do not yet know its precise mortality rate. World Health Organization data released Saturday identified 2,348 deaths from 76,392 confirmed cases in China, for a rough rate of 3.07 percent. The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) published this week a study of 72,314 confirmed, clinically diagnosed or suspected cases as of February 11. According to the most extensive study done so far, the novel coronavirus was benign in 80.9 percent of the cases, “serious” in 13.8 percent and “critical” in 4.7 percent. The remaining 0.6 percent was not specified. According to the China CDC study, the mortality rate increased substantially with age, and those over 80 were most at risk with a rate of 14.8 percent. Patients who already suffered from cardiovascular diseases were also particularly at risk, ahead of diabetics and those who suffered … Continue reading Coronavirus: what we know and what we don’t