Such models of "excess mortality" are commonly used by public health officials to better understand disease outbreaks and the effectiveness of counter-measures. The study found there were about 206,000 excess deaths across the 21 countries during the period, a figure that conforms to independent estimates. Italy, Scotland and Belgium also had significant excess deaths, while in some countries such as New Zealand there was no marked change or even — as in the case of Bulgaria — a decrease. "Even if vaccines and better treatments for severe [Covid-19] infection are developed, the way to minimise excess deaths is to reduce the infection rate through population level measures," said Banerjee. These include lockdowns, protecting high risk groups,and establishing effective "test, trace and isolate" systems, he said.

Source: New Zealand Herald October 14, 2020 23:15 UTC