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Fatalities from pneumonia and flu drop in 2020
Courtesy of ICRT
Researchers have found that the mortality rate of pneumonia and influenza in Taiwan dropped to the lowest level in a decade last year.
Lead researcher from Taipei Medical University's College of Public Health Gao Zhi-wen said Taiwan had 48.7 deaths per 100,000 from the two diseases in 2020, much lower than 56.8 deaths a year before.
The finding is significant in that some people have expressed doubts about Taiwan's extra-low Covid-19 deaths, saying that hospitals may have reported deaths from coronavirus as pneumonia or influenza.
Gao said the two diseases' low mortality rate clearly indicates that this did not happen. Instead, the results indicate that mask wearing, physical distancing, and restricting large social events may have had a positive spillover effect, driving down the number of deaths from pneumonia and influenza.
Researchers have also found that last year's all-cause mortality rate, at 400 per 100,000, is lower than 417.6 in 2019.
Studies have shown that many high Covid-19 mortality countries also had high all-cause mortality rates as their medical resources were stretched thin, and Gao said luckily Taiwan had no such problems.
