Up to and including January of this year, the coronavirus has claimed the lives of 40,679 people in the Netherlands. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reports this on the basis of official statements of causes of death. With this number, the actual number of deaths as a result of COVID-19 is much higher than the number of reports received by RIVM. The corona dashboard indicates a death rate of 22,324.
Statistics Netherlands always receives registrations of the cause of death later than the notification from a municipality that someone has died. It is therefore difficult to say which factors played a role in the latest mortality figures.
There was still excess mortality in May, but to a lesser extent than in April, according to figures published by the statistical office on Thursday. Excess mortality means that more people have died than expected based on past figures. About 700 more people died in May. This mainly concerned people who received some form of long-term care, such as nursing home residents.
In April, the death rate was much higher. At that time, an average of about four hundred people more died than usual. Researchers did not yet have enough data to explain that, but they suspected a connection with corona and the flu epidemic that was still prevalent at the time. RIVM reported on 25 May that the flu wave was over.
The CBS figures now show that there was no longer any excess mortality in the last week of May. That was only the case in the three weeks before that.