From March to the end of June, the countries of the European Union registered almost 170,000 more deaths than the average of the previous four years. The European statistical office Eurostat informed about it on Monday. The highest number of above-average deaths in European countries was recorded at the end of March and the beginning of April. In the Czech Republic, an above-average number of deaths was recorded from mid-March to the end of April and then in June.
When comparing the months in which Europe struggled with the first wave of the covid-19 epidemic, Eurostat relied on the average death toll from 2016 to 2019. Across the European Union, above-average deaths were recorded consistently from early March to late May. In June, the death toll fell below the average of the previous four years. Around 1.7 million people died in the European Union during the period under review.
The highest number of above-average deaths was recorded in Spain (48,000), followed by Italy (46,000) and France (30,000). Germany and the Netherlands both register around 10,000 more deaths than the 2016-2019 average. The other 21 member states have an additional 25,000 deaths, according to Eurostat, whose report lacks data from Ireland.
“In some parts of Europe, the gap (in the number of deaths) was extremely high compared to previous years,” Eurostat said. He cites the Italian district of Bergamo as an example, where the number of deaths increased by 895 percent in mid-March. In the Czech Republic, the total number of deaths for the entire period under review remained slightly above average in almost all regions, with the only exceptions being the Pardubice and Hradec Králové regions, where the number of deaths was below the medium-term average.
Most above-average deaths occur in groups of people aged 70 and over. They make up 96 percent of these deaths.
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