How the coronavirus death toll compares to other pandemics

NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 7: Two medical doctors at right adjust an oxygen tank to deal with COVID-19 patients at the emergency room of the Elmhurst Hospital Center on April 7, 2020 in the Queens borough of New York City. Hospitals in New York City, which have been especially hard hit by the coronavirus, are facing shortages of beds, ventilators and protective equipment for medical staff. (Photo by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)

• The new coronavirus has killed more than 100,000 people around the world.
• It's extremely contagious and spreads from person to person easily through close contact.
• The most severe coronavirus cases often include difficulty breathing and can require hospitalization, in which patients may be hooked up to ventilators to blow more oxygen into their lungs.
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The novel coronavirus has already killed more than 3,000 people in China, 15,000 in Spain, 18,000 in Italy, and it isn't done yet.

In the US, now the epicenter of this global pandemic, more than 460,000 coronavirus cases have been diagnosed to date, and upwards of 16,000 people have died so far.

As of April 10, here's how the death count of Covid-19 compared with other pandemics that have spread far and wide, with devastating consequences:

Shayanne Gal/Business Insider

Covid-19 is extremely contagious and spreads easily from person to person through close contact.

It's too early to calculate the overall death rate from the viral illness, but so far the most severe coronavirus cases often include some difficulty breathing, and many of those require hospitalization. In intensive care, patients may be hooked up to ventilators, which help blow more oxygen into a person's lungs.

Update: This post was originally published on April 1, 2020. It was updated on April 10, as the Covid-19 death toll topped 100,000, worldwide.