The Lancet Infectious Diseases: Comprehensive COVID-19 hospitalization and death rate estimates help countries best prepare as global pandemic unfolds

First comprehensive estimates from mainland China of the proportion of people with COVID-19 who required hospitalisation, and latest death rate estimates, both show sharp increases with age. Authors warn that without intervention the number of people needing hospital treatment is likely to overwhelm even the most advanced healthcare systems worldwide, though caution that as the pandemic unfolds, it is possible that outcomes could improve and it will be important to revise estimates in this study. The new analysis also finds that the estimated proportion of deaths from both diagnosed cases and from milder, unconfirmed cases is strongly influenced by age. The estimates are slightly lower than others that have been made for the virus, but are still much higher than for previous pandemics such as 2009 pandemic influenza H1N1, which was estimated to be fatal in around 0.02% of cases