Covid 19 coronavirus: Cases are rising globally, yet fewer people are dying – New Zealand Herald

Whether the world is in a second wave of the pandemic or still in the grip of the first is up for debate. But what is for sure is something remarkable has changed with more recent Covid-19 infections: fewer people appear to be dying.
The question is why, and if it will stay that way.
In April and May, Covid-19 was claiming around 300 deaths per day in the US, as many as 8 per cent of all those know to be infected. In early July, that was down to about 5 per cent.
It’s not just a trend in the US. A study in Milan found a “dramatic drop” in mortality from 24 per cent of those hospitalised in March to just 2 per cent in May. In England, the death rate of people with Covid-19 in hospital has gone from 6 per cent to 1.5 per cent.
It sounds like good news. Certainly, scores of people who would have died if they had caught coronavirus earlier in the pandemic are still alive because they became infected more recently.
But an Australian epidemiologist has backed up warnings from top health officials that we shouldn’t be too dazzled by the numbers. Total deaths are almost certainly about to rise, including here in Australia, and it’s even possible we could be around the corner from a surge in new victims.
On Thursday, the US reported its single biggest surge in new coronavirus cases with 65,000 infections. Yet, deaths are down 75 per cent since their April peak.
US President Donald Trump has ignored the soaring number of infections but revelled in the fewer number of deaths.
“99 per cent of

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