The new coronavirus will infect half of the global population and have a fatality rate of up to 3%, analysts said Wednesday.
“We assume that the virus will infect around 50% of the world population; 20% of the cases will be severe, and 1-3% will result in deaths,” analysts from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) said in a note.
As a result of the pandemic, the EIU predicted global growth would stand at just 1% for 2020 — down from its outlook of 2.3% before the outbreak began. It would mark the lowest rate in global gross domestic product (GDP) growth since the global financial crisis, analysts noted.
