CHICAGO – Chicago-based Wirepoints.com points to stats and says COVID fatalities are down dramatically as positivity rates mount once again.
Lost in the attention given to Illinois’ massive spike in COVID-19 cases is the collapse in the virus’ case fatality rate, or CFR. At the height of the crisis in June, almost 5 percent of Illinois’ recorded COVID cases resulted in deaths. But as recorded cases have risen significantly over the past three months and deaths have not, the fatality rate from August through today has dropped to just 0.9 percent.
The latest COVID data is quickly revealing how less fatal the coronavirus really is, and that has major implications for lockdown policies and, in particular, for school shutdowns.
That drop in the case fatality rate reflects a dramatic increase in the number of COVID tests being performed, a significant increase in rates of infection among younger Illinoisans and reportedly better overall treatment of the virus.
Illinois’ CFR is gradually dropping toward what the Center for Disease Control estimates is the virus’ true infection fatality rate (IFR), about 0.65 percent. In contrast to the case fatality rate, the IFR includes estimates of all infections, including asymptomatic cases, not just reported cases.
It’s important to note that the 0.9 percent case fatality rate reported above is an average across all age groups and it’s still heavily influenced upward by the high death rate for those 80 and older. The actual CFR for the younger age brackets is dramatically lower. We break out those numbers in a following section.
More on the topic HERE
