Deaths increased by 10.6% compared to 2019, when there was still no Covid, which represents one of the largest increases in the country
The Region of Murcia has registered 10.6% more deaths so far this year than during the same period in 2019, when the Covid-19 pandemic had not yet erupted. This is collected by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). This is the fourth largest increase in the entire country, only surpassed by the one occurring in Valencia (15.2%), Andalusia (14.4%) and Catalonia (11.8%).
Specifically, this increase means that some 900 more people have died in the Region since January than would be expected in a pandemic-free situation. It is a calculation that is close to the deaths registered by coronavirus in the analyzed period (979). From the comparison of both data, it can be deduced that there is no mortality from Covid that is being left out of the official statistics in the Region, contrary to what happened in the whole of Spain during the worst moments of the pandemic, when many people died without a PCR test.
A tragic winter
Behind the sharp increase in mortality experienced in 2021 is the third wave of the pandemic, which mainly hit the Valencian Community and the Region of Murcia during the months of January and February.
In the worst of winter, the Region came to face weeks with increases of 30% in mortality. Although with less intensity, thanks to vaccines, the fifth wave has also caused many deaths. Specifically, between mid-June and the last week of September, 123 deaths were reported by Covid. This corresponds approximately to the excess of deaths detected by the INE with respect to 2020, estimated at 138, although in relation to 2019 the figure rises to 372. The impact of the Covid is therefore still very present.
100,000 deaths in Spain
With regard to the situation in Spain, the excess mortality is over 100,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to studies by two official entities, the National Institute of Statistics (INE), dependent on the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and the Carlos III Institute, linked to the Ministries of Health and Science, through its MoMo Report.
Although excess mortality includes those who died from all causes, the vast majority of those accounted for in these two statistics died from Covid, mainly during the first wave, in the spring of last year, when the lack of tests prevented confirming the cause. real of the death of thousands of people who presented symptoms compatible with coronavirus. The INE and the Carlos III compute 20,000 more deaths than the official count of Health, which only adds the deceased with a positive CRP.
The entity that offers the most reliable figures is the National Institute of Statistics, which created a tool for the pandemic called ‘Estimation of the number of weekly deaths during the Covid-19 outbreak’, which compares the mortality of each of the last five years week to week. According to these data, from week 10 of 2020 (early March) to the end of September 2021, in Spain 106,769 more people have died than the average of previous years for that same period.
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