Status of COVID-19 In China

Here is a digest of a report by the WHO based on the findings of a team of experts who visited China. You can read the full report here (PDF link).

A few key points:

• 5% of people who are diagnosed with Covid require artificial respiratin. Another 15% need to breathe in highly concentrated oxygen - and not just for a few days. The duration from the beginning of the disease until recovery is 3 to 6 weeks on average for these severe and critical patients (compared to only 2 weeks for the mildly ill). The mass and duration of the treatments overburdened the existing health care system in Wuhan many times over. 
• The most common symptoms are fever (88%) and dry cough (68%). Exhaustion (38%), expectoration of mucus when coughing (33%), shortness of breath (18%), sore throat (14%), headaches (14%), muscle aches (14%), chills (11%) are also common. Less frequent are nausea and vomiting (5%), stuffy nose (5%) and diarrhoea (4%). Running nose is not a symptom of Covid
• Pre-existing conditions: The fatality rate for those infected with pre-existing cardiovascular disease in China was 13.2%. It was 9.2% for those infected with high blood sugar levels (uncontrolled diabetes), 8.4% for high blood pressure, 8% for chronic respiratory diseases and 7.6% for cancer. Infected persons without a relevant previous illness died in 1.4% of cases.
• Age: The younger you are, the less likely you are to be infected and the less likely you are to fall seriously ill if you do get infected

It's clear that the aggressive containment measures taken in China are working and may be the only way to control the disease, especially in its early stages. Given the abysmal state of US health care system, the epidemic in the US is likely to be far more severe and long lasting there than in China.