CoronaVirus Becomes World’s Most Costliest Epidemic, at over $62 Billion, New Report Reveals

The ravaging Coronavirus has become the world’s costliest epidemic in the last 20 years. According to data collected by Learnbonds.com the CoronaVirus, which has mostly hit China, is projected to cost the country about 2% of the GDP in the first quarter of 2020. This is equivalent to $62 billion.

Based on these calculations the impact on the global GDP might be even bigger.

The outbreak might hamper Chinese growth as most operations have been halted. If the virus is not contained, a similar situation might be replicated in other parts of the world.

China is prioritizing containing the virus with the government allocating $12.6 billion for medical treatment and equipment. Elsewhere, leading banks have lowered interest rates for small businesses and individuals in the worst-hit areas including Hubei, the epicenter of the virus.

By February 14, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control puts CoronaVirus deaths at 427, while infections were 20,626.

According to LearnBonds.com, CoronaVirus is projected to be the costliest epidemic when compared to other disease outbreaks including Ebola, Swine flu among others. This is despite the fact that previous diseases such as Swine Flu and Ebola had a much higher death toll.

Ebola which ravaged most parts of Africa led to a loss of $53 billion. The virus has recorded 11,323 deaths and 28,646 infections.

The Swine flu epidemic which recorded the highest number of casualties at 18,138 resulted in a loss of $50 billion.

Other epidemics with notable economic consequences include Bird flu ($40 billion), SARS ($40 billion) and MERS ($10 billion).

Generally, the impact of epidemics is severe. Hence the need to contain outbreaks in order to avoid economic shut down within the affected regions.

Source: LearnBonds.com