Contribution of age-related effects to COVID-19 differences of crude fatality ratios in two Argentine provinces between March and August 2020

The following paper presents temporary estimations of CFR (the ratio between deaths and infected positive cases) attributed to COVID-19 for two provinces in Argentina (Jujuy and Buenos Aires Province), using public data provided by the Argentine Ministry of Health. In order to make comparisons between jurisdictions, we applied a series of exploratory measures (which resulted in excluding many other jurisdictions from the comparison), and later on the Kitagawa decomposition procedure, trying to separate rate (“net” fatality) and structure components (age-attributable effects) from CFR estimations in those provinces. After the decomposition we can observe that between almost non existant differences on average, the magnitude of structure and net rate effects tend to go into different directions across age groups, indicating some premature mortality in Buenos Aires and an excess net CFR in Jujuy for older age-groups