Coronavirus: Death toll pales in comparison to China's daily road deaths

While the death toll from coronavirus continues to climb, it doesn't compare to the number of people killed in road accidents across China every day.

In 2016, the World Health Organisation estimated that more than 700 people were killed every day due to road accidents, South China Morning Post reported.

WHO estimated road accidents claimed 260,000 lives a year, with 60 per cent of those killed being vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists.

As of Tuesday evening, coronavirus had killed 427 people, just over half of that estimated daily road toll.

More than 20,438 people were confirmed to have the infection in mainland China.

Virus Spread

While the global rising death toll amplifies global panic, CNBC news reports that the flu remains a higher threat to the health of Americans than coronavirus.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that at least 19 million people have come down with the flu in the US this season, with 180,000 ending up in the hospital.

Influenza has killed 10,000 in the US this influenza season, which began in September and can run until May.

Medical staff in protective outfits wait at the entrance of a clinic for fever patients and patients from Wuhan in Fuyang in central China's Anhui Province. Photo / AP

The South China Morning Post reports that the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus is below that of the Ebola virus, which infected 34,453 people and killed 15,158.

Coronavirus' current death toll of 427 lives is just under half of the death toll from the 2012 Mers virus, which killed 858 people.

The Post reports that the fatality rate of the coronavirus sits around 2.1 per cent, far below that of the Sars virus, which was 9.6 per cent, or the Ebola virus, which had a staggering fatality rate of 43.9 per cent.