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More than 300,000 people around the world are confirmed to have recovered from the coronavirus

True number of those recovered likely much higher
More than 300,000 people around the world are confirmed to have recovered from the coronavirus
Posted at 1:50 PM, Apr 08, 2020
and last updated 2020-04-08 18:06:33-04

As of Wednesday, there are more than 300,000 who are confirmed to have fully recovered from COVID-19.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Center , just over 308,000 people have recovered from COVID-19 as of Wednesday.

Many health experts believe the true number of people who have recovered from the virus is actually much higher. Many countries around the world, like the United States, currently lack to capacity to test everyone who may have the coronavirus. As a result, people who are infected with the disease and only experience mild symptoms and later fully recover never get tested and aren't included in the dataset.

Johns Hopkins' data shows that most of the recoveries were in China, where the outbreak began. The nation reported more than 77,000 recovered individuals.

In the U.S., there have been more than 21,000 recoveries. That number will likely rise sharply in the coming days, as the virus reached U.S. much later than it did throughout China. There's also a lag time when it comes to reporting "recovered" cases, as coronavirus patients are only deemed recovered two weeks after they first exhibit symptoms.

The U.S. is currently entering what could be its most deadly week of the pandemic. According to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, the U.S. is three days away from "peak hospital resource use" — the point where the most people are sick with the virus but cannot get the help because some hospitals across the country will be too crowded. The model projects that at least 2,000 Americans will die each day between now and April 17.

While it is impossible to know the true mortality rate of the coronavirus at this point, the World Health Organization has previously said it believes the mortality rate for those infected with the coronavirus is about 3.4%.

This story was originally published by WTXL in Tallahassee, Florida.