We speculated last week that by Wednesday of this week the coronavirus death toll would top 1,000, which would bring another new and stronger wave of attention. As of this morning, and this is the official number out of China and there’s no real reason to take it as credible— it’s hardly in China’s best interests to do anything but downplay the virulence and deadliness of this pandemic; did you see Chernobyl?—the death toll is at 1,016.

On Monday, for the first time, more than 100 people died of coronavirus in China in a single day. Again, the official count was 108. Chinese officials reacted by urging countries not to cut ties for the sake of the global economy. Meanwhile, more than 43,000 people worldwide are known to have been infected, but with an incubation period of up to 24 days, who knows exactly how many humans have been infected?

The death rate of coronavirus (those who contract it as compared to those who die of having contracted it) is not yet known, but it seems to be less deadly than SARS or MERS. But it has killed more people than either of those known viruses.

China will probably see a peak of deaths and then, due to quarantine and other steps being taken, their rate of cases should slow. The next question will be to see where else it has spread and how quickly a country that does not have a totalitarian government, or even a well-run one, will be able to curb the spread of it.