Five reasons coronavirus may be getting less deadly

Covid-19 infection rates are rising in many countries - but death rates remain low

Researchers working on Covid-19 at a lab in Belo Horizonte, Brazil
(Image credit: Douglas Magno/AFP/Getty)

An increase in Covid-19 cases in the UK and many other European countries has triggered fears of a deadly second wave - but another set of statistics offers more grounds for optimism.

“It is becoming increasingly clear that people are less likely to die if they get Covid-19 now compared with earlier in the pandemic, at least in Europe,” says New Scientist.

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Holden Frith is The Week’s digital director. He also makes regular appearances on “The Week Unwrapped”, speaking about subjects as diverse as vaccine development and bionic bomb-sniffing locusts. He joined The Week in 2013, spending five years editing the magazine’s website. Before that, he was deputy digital editor at The Sunday Times. He has also been TheTimes.co.uk’s technology editor and the launch editor of Wired magazine’s UK website. Holden has worked in journalism for nearly two decades, having started his professional career while completing an English literature degree at Cambridge University. He followed that with a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University in Chicago. A keen photographer, he also writes travel features whenever he gets the chance.