Excess mortality in 2020 reached its peak in November
Excess mortality in 2020 reached its peak in November
16/02/2021
In spring 2020, the number of deaths in the EU started to rise rapidly due to COVID-19: in some parts of Europe, deaths were exceptionally high, when compared with the average mortality of previous years. From here came the idea of assessing the impact of the pandemic by looking at the excess mortality, i.e. the increase in the total number of deaths, from any cause, compared with deaths in the previous years.
In total, over 450 000 more deaths occurred in the EU between March and November 2020 compared with the same period in 2016 – 2019. During the early rise of COVID-19, the excess mortality in the EU reached its first peak in April 2020, with an increase of 25% compared with the average of the same month over 2016 - 2019.
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