No excess mortality in Norway this year

Preliminary figures from FHI show that no more deaths have occurred this year than normal, despite the corona epidemic.

– A few weeks back there were signs of slightly increased mortality in weeks 15 and 16 for the age group 65 years and older, but the level of mortality has now adjusted to normal, FHI writes in its latest report on total mortality monitoring.

It is emphasized that the figures are uncertain due to adjustments for delays in registering deaths.

Shorter flu season
Total mortality shows whether more or fewer people have died than normal.

In Norway, this is used among other things, to estimate how many people die from the regular seasonal flu. On average, it is estimated that around 900 people die from influenza annually, but this year’s seasonal flu came to quicker end than usual, after comprehensive anti-coronavirus infection measures were introduced in March.

So far, the health authorities have registered 237 deaths amongst Corona infected here in the country, which may make up for possibly fewer influenza deaths.

– Since we monitor total mortality and do not have information on the cause of death, the cause of any observed mortality cannot be determined without performing further analyzes, FHI writes in its report.

Different from European countries
There are normally more deaths in the winter than in the summer, precisely because of respiratory tract infections like the flu, but also for other reasons.

An excess mortality could possibly give indications of whether Corona deaths have not been picked up by the official statistics. Such trends have been picked up in several European countries during the pandemic, but not in Norway.

– There has been considerable mortality in Europe that coincides with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, especially in the age group 65 and older, but also in the age group 15-64. Mortality seems to have reached its peak and is on the way down in several of the countries, writes FHI.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today