One of the factors that makes it so hard for investors to grapple with the Covid-19 coronavirus is that there really aren’t very good numbers related to the mortality rate, and if you look at the mortality rates by individual countries, they vary widely. Reasons for the variance range from lack of available testing infrastructure to a general distrust of statistics being reported by certain governments. With those two caveats in mind, a look at current infection and mortality rates shows a disconcerting picture from a US perspective. The table below shows the number of cases and deaths due to the coronavirus broken down by country. These figures were pulled from the incredibly useful Johns Hopkins Coronavirus monitor, and we only included countries that have reported more than ten cases of Covid-19.
The table below is sorted by mortality rate from highest to lowest, and here is one case where the US doesn’t want to be winning. With a current rate of 5.6%, the mortality rate from confirmed Covid-19 cases in the US is higher than any other country in the world including Iran which comes in at 3.3%. Obviously, the lack of available testing in the US from a shortage of test kits has resulted in fewer tests than other countries, so the number of confirmed cases in the US is likely a lot lower than the number currently flowing around undetected. However, the fact that the US even finds itself here in the first place isn’t the most comforting thing for Americans already worried about the spread of the virus! Receive full access to all of our analysis, including the latest coronavirus news and how it’s impacting the markets, by signing up for a free two-week free trial to Bespoke Institutional today.
The chart below shows the ten countries/regions with the highest mortality rates from the Covid-19 outbreak. The US is nearly a full two percentage points above China (3.7%) and a full three percentage points above every other country besides Iran. Again, as testing expands in the US, the number of cases will undoubtedly rise as milder cases are detected, but even in that case, testing procedures capacity in the US should have been a lot faster to ramp up.
