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science Saturday 17 OctOber 2020
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Study: Health systems, govt responses linked to virus tolls HEALTH

DOCTOR ON DUTY
By FRANK JORDANS and the ability of national
Associated Press health systems to cope Oranjestad
BERLIN (AP) — Scientists with the pandemic also Hospital 7:00 pm / 10:00pm
say a comparison of 21 played a role. Tel. 527 4000
developed countries dur- Amitava Banerjee, a pro-
ing the start of the coro- fessor of clinical data sci- San Nicolas
navirus pandemic shows ence at University Col- Imsan 24 hours
that those with early lock- lege London who wasn't Tel.524 8833
downs and well-prepared involved in the study, said Women in Difficulties
national health systems it was well designed and PHARMACY ON DUTY
avoided large numbers of had used standardized Oranjestad:
additional deaths due to methods. Kibrahacha Tel. 583 4908
the outbreak. He noted that the compar- San Nicolas:
Seroe Preto Tel. 584 4833
In a study published ison between death rates Women in Difficulties
Wednesday by the jour- in the United Kingdom and OTHER
nal Nature Medicine, re- New Zealand, where the A man wearing a face mask walks past an entrance to Belfast Dental Clinic 587 9850
searchers used the num- age of the population and City Hospital, Northern Ireland, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020. Blood Bank Aruba 587 0002
ber of weekly deaths in 19 the rates of pre-existing Associated Press Urgent Care 586 0448
European countries, New conditions such as obesity ter treatments for severe measures," said Banerjee.q Walk-In Doctor’s Clinic
Zealand and Australia over are similar, supports the ar- (COVID-19) infection are +297 588 0539
Women in Difficulties
the past decade to esti- gument that other factors developed, the way to mi- EMERGENCY
mate how many people contributed to the differing nimise excess deaths is to
would have died from mid- mortality figures. reduce the infection rate Police 100
February to May 2020 had "Even if vaccines and bet- through population level Oranjestad 527 3140
527 3200
Noord
the pandemic not hap- Sudoku Sta. Cruz 527 2900
pened. San Nicolas 584 5000
The authors, led by Majid Police Tipline 11141
Ezzati of Imperial College Ambulancia 911
London, then compared Fire Dept. 115
the predicted number of Red Cross 582 2219
deaths to the actual re- TAXI SERVICES
ported figure during that Taxi Tas 587 5900
period to determine how Prof. Taxi 588 0035
many likely occurred due Taxi D.T.S. 587 2300
to the pandemic. Such Taxi Serv. Aruba 583 3232
models of 'excess mortal- A1 Taxi Serv. 280 2828
ity' are commonly used by Women in Difficulties
public health officials to TRAVEL INFO
better understand disease Aruba Airport 524 2424
outbreaks and the effec- American Airlines 582 2700
tiveness of counter-mea- Avianca 588 0059
sures. Jet Blue 588 2244
The study found there Surinam 582 7896
were about 206,000 ex- Women in Difficulties
cess deaths across the 21 AID FOUNDATIONS
countries during the pe-
riod, a figure that conforms FAVI- Visually Impaired
Tel. 582 5051
to independent estimates.
In Spain, the number of Solution on Page 14 Alcoholics Anonymous
deaths was 38% higher Tel. 736 2952
than would have been ex- Narcotics Anonymous
Tel. 583 8989
pected without the pan- Women in Difficulties
demic, while in England Tel. 583 5400
and Wales it was 37% high- Centre for Diabetes
er. Tel. 524 8888
Italy, Scotland and Belgium Child Abuse Prevention
also had significant ex- Tel. 582 4433
cess deaths, while in some Quota Club Tel. 525 2672
Women in Difficulties
countries such as New Zea- General Info
land there was no marked
change or even — as in Phone Directory Tel. 118
the case of Bulgaria — a
decrease.
While the authors note that
there are differences in the
compositions of popula-
tions, such as age and the
prevalence of pre-existing
conditions that contribute
to mortality rates, govern-
ment efforts to suppress
transmission of the virus