More Than 100,000 Americans Have Now Recovered From Coronavirus

Recoveries from a new coronavirus in the United States have surpassed 100,000 as companies and researchers race to find a proven treatment.

As of Monday morning, the U.S. had reported 965,933 cases of a new coronavirus that causes COVID-19, according to a tracker maintained by Johns Hopkins University. Out of those cases, officials reported 54,877 people died and 107,045 people recovered.

Health officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, believe antibodies show a person may have some immunity to the virus. The specifics of immunity people may have after recovering remains unknown, but officials are attempting to transfer immunity from those who have recovered to high-risk populations and healthcare workers through convalescent plasma.

A number of other drugs are being studied as a potential treatment for a new coronavirus, but as of Monday, health care workers are tasked with treating a patient's symptoms, not the virus itself.

Around the world, 881,635 people have recovered, as identified by the tracker. Of the five countries with the highest number of cases, Germany, where there have been 157,781 cases and 114,5000 recovered, has had the highest reported recovery rate at 72 percent.

Spain, with 236,199 people infected, has had the second highest number of cases. Of those cases, 127,609 people have recovered, giving the country a recovery rate of about 54 percent. Italy and France, two countries with the third and fourth highest case count, have current recovery rates of about 33 and 28 percent respectively.

During a pandemic, the word "increase" is often accompanied by a negative data set, but recoveries are among the few times you want to see an upward trend. Recovery rates aren't always a reliable metric, though, as there are a number of factors that can skew the data.

For one, there's a high probability that the number of cases in any given country, including the U.S., isn't accurate. Since about 80 percent of people are expected to have mild symptoms, it's possible those with a mild case weren't tested or that a certain percentage of people were asymptomatic, giving them no reason to believe they should be tested.

If that's the case and mild or asymptomatic cases are higher than the reported numbers, it means recoveries will also be higher. States and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have started conducting antibody tests in an attempt to determine what percentage of the population unknowingly recovered from the virus.

New York collected samples from about 3,000 people in 19 counties across the state. In New York City, the epicenter of the outbreak, about one in five people tested positive for antibodies.

Along with changing the recovery rate, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said a change in the actual infection rate would change the mortality rate of the state, as well. New York, with 288,045 cases and 22,269 deaths, currently has a mortality rate of about 8 percent.

Statewide, about one in seven people tested positive for antibodies and if the entire population is similar to that sample infection rate, it could bring the death rate down to 0.5 percent, according to Cuomo. However, until a wider population is given the antibody test and the number of at-home COVID-19 deaths are calculated, the rates can be skewed.

Still, increases in the number of people recovering from the virus is a piece of good news during a difficult time and officials, including Cuomo, have urged people not to lose sight of that.