Researchers have thought that between five and 40 coronavirus cases in 1,000 will result in death, with the best guess of nine in 1,000 or about 1%.
On March 3, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that "globally, about 3.4% of reported Covid-19 cases have died."
Scientists' estimate of the death rate is lower because not all cases are reported, reports BBC.
On March 1, Britain's Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the UK government's "very best assessment" was that the mortality rate was "2% or, likely, lower."
However, it depends on factors like age, sex and general health and the health system in the respective areas.
Death rates can be overestimated by under-reporting cases
The different death rates reported around the world are unlikely to be due to different versions of the virus.
It is because different countries are better or worse at spotting the milder to harder while counting cases, according to research by Imperial College London.
The death rate can be overestimated by the under-reporting cases. However, in the other direction, one can get it wrong as it takes time before an infection results in recovery or death.
One will underestimate the death rate because he/she is missing the cases that will end in death later if he/she includes all cases that have not yet had a chance to run their course.
Scientists join individual pieces of evidence about each of the questions to get an estimate of the death rate, but slightly different answers from those pieces of evidence will add up to big changes in the overall picture.
If an individual just uses data from Hubei, the overall death rate will look much worse as the rate has been much higher in the region than elsewhere in China.
So scientists give a range as well as a best current estimate. However, that does not also tell the full story because there is not a single death rate.
Slightly higher number of deaths among men compared to women
Although the death rates do not tell about the precise risk in any specific group, their patterns can tell about who is most at risk.
Some types of people -- the elderly, the unwell and, maybe, men -- are more likely to die if they are infected with the coronavirus.
During an analysis of more than 44,000 cases from China, the death rate was 10 times higher in the very elderly compared to the middle-aged people.
For the under 30s, the rates were lowest as there were only eight deaths in 4,500 cases.
Deaths were at least five times more common among the individuals who were suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiac or breathing problems.
In comparison with women, there were a slightly higher number of deaths among men.
The number of coronavirus cases has risen worldwide to more than 106,000 with over 3,600 dead.
The basic advice from the WHO is that a person can protect himself/herself from all respiratory viruses by washing hands, avoiding people who are coughing and sneezing, and trying not to touch his/her eyes, nose and mouth.
