Table 1.
Characteristics comparison between SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 at the time of writing this article (7 October 2020) [1,3,5,[11], [12], [13]].a
| Outbreak | Number of countries/regions | Total number of confirmed cases | Total number of deaths | Case-fatality rate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SARS-CoV | Guangdong Province, southern China (Nov. 2002–Aug. 2003) | 32 | 8422 | 919 | ~11% |
| MERS-CoV | Saudi Arabia, Middle East countries (2012) | 27 | 2494 | 858 | ~35% |
| SARS-CoV-2 | Wuhan, Hubei province, China; worldwide (Dec. 2019–ongoing) | 188 | >35.8 million | >1 million | ~3% |
SARS-CoV, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus; MERS-CoV, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus; SARS-CoV-2, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2.