London, June 9 (RHC)-- Restricting measures imposed by governments in 11 European countries have averted the deaths of more than three million people, according to a new modelling study produced by the Imperial College of London.

"Our results show that major non-pharmaceutical interventions, and lockdown in particular, have had a large effect on reducing transmission," the authors said in the study, published in Nature Research.

Using European Centre of Disease Control data on deaths in 11 nations in the period up to May 4, they compared the number of observed deaths in the countries against those predicted by their model if no restrictions had been imposed.  As a result, they estimated that around 3.1 million deaths had been averted by the policies.