WHO assessed the total lethality of coronavirus

WHO has estimated the total lethality of coronavirus (IFR) - that is, the probability of dying with the disease, including unreported and asymptomatic cases. It turned out to be less than one in 100 cases - 0.6%.

An assessment of the hard-to-calculate IFR is contained in the speech of WHO Deputy Director-General Sumiya Swaminathan at the organization's virtual press conference . According to her, mass antibody tests, which showed that registered cases of coronavirus may be an order of magnitude less than their total number, allowed to begin to really evaluate the IFR.

“To sum up, a fairly large proportion of those who get sick die – even 0.7% or 1% is still a lot – and this is most true for people with comorbidities, such as obesity in the young,” said Dr. Swaminathan.

• The figure allows us to assess the relative danger of coronavirus: it is known that the IFR of seasonal influenza is about 0.1%.

• The mortality rate of coronavirus in confirmed cases (CFR) in the world remains at the level of 5-7%, the official said (we explained the difference between IFR and CFR here ).