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 deaths 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 coronavirus that causes Covid-19 was first identified, stood at 1,147 per 100,000 over the period, 56 per cent higher than normally expected, they found in the study.

However, outside Wuhan, the death rate was 675 per 100,000, lower than the expected rate of 715, after nationwide lockdowns reduced the number of deaths from other causes like ordinary pneumonia or traffic accidents, according to the study.