That really depends on if previous deaths were diagnosed as pneumonia with no eye to COVID-19.
we didn’t see large death counts in Nov/Dec anywhere in the world from pneumonia. Including Hong Kong (first HK case was Jan 23) where human traffic between it and the mainland was very fluid prior to Feb. Wuhan didn’t take off until late Jan. with its first reported death and 41 cases reported on Jan 11. Deaths then ramped up very quickly so that by Feb 28, China was in the red 3K deaths. The flu/pneumonia season in the US also started off ‘mild’, from 1.8 Dec to 1.9 Jan to a huge jump to 48.1/100K in Feb. Italy also had no big death numbers until after Feb, and then it hit like wildfire. If the disease was around Italy prior to March, given a 2-11 day incubation, median 5.1 days,, it was not as virulent. And, we also look at the now, three, strains of Covid, that were not around in Jan., as the virus adapts. Facts do not support a weakening virus.