There were many times more deaths from corona than in the previous two years combined. THL’s leading expert Sirkka Goebeler gives an assessment of this year’s figures.
The coronavirus disease increased the death rate last year, Statistics Finland said on Tuesday.
“In 2022, there were many times more deaths from the coronavirus disease than in the two previous years combined,” said the Actuary of the Statistics Finland Kati Taskinen in the bulletin.
More than 4,300 people died from corona last year, or almost seven percent of all deaths.
Last year was the third corona year in Finland. Almost 3,400 more people died from corona than last year and almost 3,800 more than in 2020.
In addition, Corona was involved in influencing the death of more than 2,800 people as a basic cause of death other than the one recorded in the statistics. A large part of the dead were multi-morbid.
“One in three of them had memory disease as the actual underlying cause of death, and one in three had cardiovascular disease,” Taskinen said.
Mortality increased by 7.7 percent from 2021.
Chief Actuary of Statistics Finland Airi Pajunen tells STT that this is the biggest increase in mortality during the period when the statistics have been collected. Statistics have been collected since 1972.
According to him, the increase in the number of deaths is not explained by the aging of the population, the effect of which explained only a fraction of the increase.
Corona also took away even more people of working age
Those who died from the coronavirus in 2022 were on average older than the previous year. In 2022, more than 90 percent of those who died from the coronavirus had reached the age of 70.
Still, corona deaths among the younger population also increased.
A total of more than 200 working-age people aged 15–64 died from the coronavirus in 2022, compared to 133 the previous year. Two children died from the coronavirus last year.
According to Pajunen, approximately the same number of women and men died from the coronavirus infection.
Health– and the welfare institution’s leading expert Goebeler’s cricket according to the multiplicity of corona deaths is due to the fact that the virus changed to a form that spreads more easily and causes a milder disease than before.
“That corona was really huge last fall. Corona sickened more elderly people than other infections would have.”
Goebeler says that preventing deaths with tighter restrictions would have been challenging because the coronavirus spread so easily.
“Even a quick trip to the store or visiting a friend could spread the virus. The restrictions should have been extremely strict,” says Goebeler.
According to Goebeler, the population was comprehensively vaccinated. He could have been vaccinated more effectively only with a vaccine force.
Corona mortality is expected to decrease
According to Goebeler, the mortality rate of the population does not seem to remain permanently at a higher level due to the coronavirus.
“
“The back of the corona infection has already been broken, which means there are clearly fewer infections than, for example, a month ago.”
“Now it is already predictable that this year’s mortality will be clearly lower than last year’s total mortality.”
According to Goebeler, the coronavirus seems to be causing a milder disease than last year.
According to Goebeler, there have been many deaths due to corona this year as well. However, according to preliminary data, the number is not so large that it would affect the overall mortality trend.
“Now it would seem that the back of the corona infection has already been broken, i.e. there are clearly fewer infections than, for example, a month ago.”
Goebeler estimates that there will be half as many deaths from corona this year as last year.
If we don’t see a big corona wave at the end of the year, according to Goebeler, mortality will return to the growth trend before 2022 this year.
The aging of the population increases mortality even in a situation where Corona does not increase mortality.
Diseases of the circulatory system are the most common cause of death
The most deaths last year were still caused by circulatory system diseases, which were the cause of almost every third death. The long-continued downward trend in mortality from diseases of the circulatory system stopped and mortality increased in the second half of the year, says the release of Statistics Finland.
“The increase in mortality was especially aimed at heart and kidney diseases caused by hypertension, which killed more than 500 more people than a year earlier. In several cases, the background of the disease was the coronavirus disease as a contributing cause of death,” Pajunen said in the press release.
Despite the increase in mortality, cardiovascular disease mortality was lower in men and women last year than in 2019, i.e. before the corona pandemic.
The second most common cause of death was tumors.
The third most common group of causes of death was memory disorders, which caused almost one in five deaths.
The number of people who died from accidents and tumors decreased last year compared to the previous year.
The number of suicides also continued to decrease. The decline has been relatively steady since the 1990s, Statistics Finland says.
#Mortality #number #corona #deaths #multiplied #year #deaths #avoided