Around 180,000 more people died in Germany during the three years of the Covid-19 pandemic than would have otherwise been expected, according to calculations published by the ifo Institute on Friday.
(Bloomberg) — Around 180,000 more people died in Germany during the three years of the Covid-19 pandemic than would have otherwise been expected, according to calculations published by the ifo Institute on Friday.
From 2020 to 2022, almost two-thirds of all excess deaths occurred among people over the age of 80, while the figure for people under 60 was about 13,000. The deadliest year proved to be 2022, with excess mortality approaching 74,000 compared with 68,000 the year before, although not all those may be down to Covid-19.
While the reasons for the surprising acceleration in 2022 are unclear, summer heat waves and outbreaks of flu at the end of the year probably played a role, said Joachim Ragnitz, the managing director of Ifo’s Dresden branch.
The institute calculated the expected number of deaths for the period by taking the average number of fatalities from 2016 to 2019 and making adjustments for rising life expectancy and changes in the age structure.
While Germany began easing Covid restrictions in early 2022, the country this month joined other European Union members in imposing new testing requirements on passengers traveling from China in response to a surge in cases there.
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