Europe Passes China in Confirmed Coronavirus Cases, Deaths

(Bloomberg) -- Europe has surpassed China in its number of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths from the disease, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Europe’s total of more than 85,000 infections exceeds China’s 80,900. Europe has also reported just under 4,000 deaths from Covid-19, compared with about 3,200 in China. Italy’s death count alone is 2,978.

The rapid spread of the the virus in Europe, as well as in the U.S., has caught many by surprise. Officials are enacting social-distancing rules and travel blockages that seemed unthinkable a month ago, but are the types of measures that helped China and other Asian countries control the outbreak.

Generational Challenge

German Chancellor Angela Merkel used a rare television address Wednesday evening to urge people to abide by restrictions, calling the pandemic the country’s greatest challenge since World War II. In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that schools in England will shut, following similar calls from administrators in Scotland and Wales.

The coronavirus is believed to have emerged in December in a market in Wuhan, China. Now, Europe and U.S. officials are hoping that increased testing and isolating people can slow the disease’s spread, keeping health-care systems from being overwhelmed and giving researchers time to find treatments and ultimately develop a vaccine.

Actual numbers of cases are probably significantly higher than these tallies, which reflect only patients whose infections have been confirmed by testing. In the U.K., for example, health authorities said earlier this week that there may be as many as 55,000 cases, even though the official register shows about 2,600.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.