Mortality rate still too high; 400 more deaths than expected last week

Last week, week 49 of 2020 between November 30 and December 6, an estimated 3,450 people died in the Netherlands - 75 more deaths than the week before and 400 more than was expected for this period, Statistics Netherlands reported.

Mortality in the country has been higher than expected for 11 weeks now, coinciding with the second wave of corona virus infections. 

In the first eleven weeks of the second Covid-19 wave, 4,700 more people died than was expected for this period of the year. In the first wave, which lasted nine weeks, the excess mortality was an estimated 9 thousand. 

With the exception of the heat wave in August, the mortality rate in the Netherlands was slightly lower than normal in the period between the first coroanvirus wave ending and the second one starting.