Coronavirus Growth in Western Countries: August 17 Update

Here’s the coronavirus death toll through August 17. There are two things to notice. First, Italy’s blip is continuing. Second, in the UK, “The government has overhauled the way coronavirus death data is compiled in England after scientists revealed Public Health England had been counting people as having died from the virus regardless of when they tested positive. The move meant the UK death toll was revised downwards by 5,377 to 41,329 on Wednesday after a review concluded the daily death figure should only include deaths which had occurred within 28 days of a positive test. The new methodology brings England in line with rest of the UK.” Johns Hopkins caught up with this today, which is why the UK trendline is suddenly at zero and the cumulative death rate has suddenly declined to 628 per million.

The raw data from Johns Hopkins is here.

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