Yes and no. At the start of an epidemic the excess mortality is not yet measurable, its within the variation of normal deaths, and the "official" numbers of cor

Yes and no. At the start of an epidemic the excess mortality is not yet measurable, its within the variation of normal deaths, and the "official" numbers of corona deaths (people who die after having been tested positive) are not yet observed because there is no testing. CDC estimates the basic reproduction number to be 6, German Robert-Koch-Institut IIRC around 3. Maybe the presence of earlier, undetected cases have lead to an overestimation of R0.