The number of deaths in China – excluding the coronavirus epicentre of Wuhan – fell slightly during the first three months of 2020, suggesting efforts to control the spread of COVID-19 reduced fatalities from other causes, a new study showed.
Researchers from the University of Oxford and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analysed official death registry data from Jan. 1 to March 31 last year for changes in overall and cause-specific deaths.
The death rate in Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus was first identified, stood at 1,147 per 100,000 over the period, 56% higher than expected, they found in the study published on Wednesday by BMJ, the journal of the British Medical Association.
However, outside Wuhan the death rate was 675 per 100,000, lower than the expected rate of 715, after lockdowns reduced deaths from other causes such as ordinary pneumonia or traffic accidents, the study showed.
“It would appear that the lockdown and…