The number of deaths reported in December is 25% higher than normal for this time of year. This was reported by Dela, the largest funeral service provider in the Netherlands. Eight hundred more people died than one might expect.
According to the company, the number of deaths since June this year is 5-10% higher than in the same period in previous years. It mainly affects the over 65s.
“After more than two years of corona, we were ready for a little more rest, especially during the holidays, but the crowds remain and are even increasing everywhere. This really demands a lot from our people, we are doing everything we can, but we have reached the limit of what we can ask of them,” says Edzo Doeve, general manager of Dela.
He doesn’t know what caused the excess mortality. “Funeral entrepreneurs are not allowed and they don’t want to register it.” The current flu wave may play a role. “But whether that’s the real cause is guesswork for us,” Doeve says.
Smaller peak than the first corona wave
According to Dela, the death peak is lower than in the first wave of the corona pandemic in spring 2020. So the funeral industry was able to handle it because the lockdown meant that a large part of the support was online and the farewell is occurred in a small circle. “There are now no restrictions and people regularly have to wait for a funeral home to be available,” the director said.
Dela provides more than 40,000 funerals a year in the Netherlands through its forty crematoria and over seventy funeral homes.
Busier for months
The firm had already warned in mid-November that the funeral industry was much busier than usual. The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) has been reporting for months that more people are dying than expected. However, the statistics office cannot provide the cause of the extra mortality. Scientists will conduct research on this in the near future.
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