According to a forensic pathologist acquaintance, the fatality rate is also likely lower because there hasn’t been time to carefully sift through the data or, especially in places like northern Italy, do autopsies to determine whether people died because of Covid or died with Covid.
His example: If a person has really bad emphysema and catches a cold that burdens an already weak system and then dies, the cause of death is given as emphysema, not a cold. But if the same person gets sicker and tests positive for coronavirus that is burdening an already weak system and then dies, the cause of death is given as Covid, not emphysema.