Over 13 thousand more deaths in 2020 than predicted

Over 162 thousand people died in the Netherlands through the first 51 weeks of the year. That total was 13 thousand higher, or about 9 percent more, than expected.

It includes the four thousand people who died during the week ending December 20, about ten percent more than the preceding week, wrote Statistics Netherlands (CBS).

Weekly deaths in the country began to escalate during the third week of September, when the second wave of coronavirus infections had already staarten. Since then, 6.1 thousand more people died than had been predicted, the CBS said.

The increased mortality has been witnessed across all age groups, with those aged 80 and up most affected followed by those from 65 to 80.

Official statistics from public health agency RIVM show that nearly 11,100 people have died from Covid-19 in the Netherlands. The CBS suggested that the figure will likely as it finalized death statistics from March through June which show that just over 10 thousand people died from the disease during that time alone.

“The excess mortality in that period is therefore entirely caused by death from the new coronavirus,” the CBS wrote. There was also an increase in deaths reported during the two weeks of the summer heat wave.