Care homes suffer 50 percent higher mortality than in early-2020

Nursing homes and care facilities across the Netherlands experienced higher mortality rates in late-April than they did earlier in the year, Statistics Netherlands reported on Friday. While high, the figures still showed improvement compared to previous weeks in April.

According to the latest round of figures released by the RIVM, in a single week between April 20 and April 26, 1,708 people died while in need of care (i.e. people in nursing homes, in other care institutions or receiving care at home). This figure comes in at 50 percent higher than the average for the first ten weeks of 2020, which ran from Jan. 1 to March 8.

Statistics Netherlands added that, among the remainder of the population, mortality rates did not decrease further. It held at nine percent above the expected average, indicating the possibility of more cases where someone died from Covid-19 before they tested positive for a coronavirus infection.

"The number of deaths in the rest of the population rose from an average of 1,972 a week in the first ten weeks of 2020 to 2,867 in week 14 [March 30 to April 5]. After that, it dropped to just over 2,200 deaths in week 16 [April 13 to April 19]. In week 17 [April 20 to April 26], the decline of mortality in this group does not continue. Mortality is still more than 9 percent higher than in an average week in the first ten weeks of 2020," the findings report.

The new insight follows after it was reported earlier this month that the high rates in the number of weekly deaths in the Netherlands is continuing to decrease across the country.