Wartakotalive.com -The death rate among patients infected with the coronavirus who is hospitalized is nearly three times higher than those with the flu, according to a new study.
The researchers compared French national data for 89,530 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in March and April this year with 45,819 patients hospitalized for seasonal influenza between December 2018 and the end of February 2019.
Approximately 16.9 percent of patients COVID-19 who were hospitalized died during the study period. Meanwhile, the number of flu patients treated with severe influenza cases requiring hospitalization reached 5.8 percent.
The researchers also found that more patients COVID-19 required intensive care, which was 16.3 percent compared with 10.8 percent for influenza patients. While the average intensive care for patients COVID-19 nearly twice as long, ie 15 days as eight days in influenza patients.
The results of the study, published in the journal Lancet Respiratory Medicine, contradict the beliefs of US President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro who equated the deadly virus with the flu or “very mild flu.”
However, the study also showed positive findings for children and adolescents, i.e. people under 18 who were hospitalized for COVID-19 far fewer than those who caught the flu, or at least 1.4 percent of those infected had to be hospitalized. Meanwhile, children and adolescents under the age of 18 who had to be treated for flu reached 19.5 percent.
The following DW summarizes an overview of other major developments related to the corona outbreak around the world:
America
The advisory panel of the Food and Drug Administration in the United States (FDA) on Thursday (17/12) gave the green light for the delivery of the coronavirus vaccine made by Moderna Inc. in an emergency. The move allows candidate vaccine recipients to get approval from US regulators as early as Friday (18/12). Moderna will be the second vaccine allowed in the West after experts issued emergency approvals for vaccines produced by BioNTech and Pfizer.
Meanwhile, from Colombia in South America, on Thursday (17/12) daily confirmed cases of the corona virus had reached its highest level since mid-August. The spike is linked to a celebration to mark the celebration of the Immaculate Conception or what is locally known as the Night of the Candles. It is at this celebration that families get together to put candles in the windows or outside the house. The Andes mountainous country recorded 12,196 new cases on Thursday, according to local health ministry data.
Asia
The Philippines can get vaccines COVID-19 from Moderna Inc. and Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc. between four and 25 million doses, the Philippines ambassador to Washington said Friday. The country also plans to buy doses from Sinovac Biotech and AstraZeneca, but is too late to buy the BioNTech and Pfizer vaccines.
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