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The corona pandemic is also reflected in official death statistics, and clearly. Statistics Austria reported 2,431 deaths on Thursday during the week of November 16-22. Not many people have died in a single week since 1978. At that time (February 20-26) there were 2,516 deaths. In total, 77,662 people died in the first 47 weeks of this year, 6.5 percent more than the average from 2015 to 2019.
The 2,431 deaths reported Thursday for the 47th calendar week of 2020 are 58 percent above the five-year average. The Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) reports 568 deaths from a Covid infection this week. The highest value in the recent past was in early 2017 with 2,340 deaths (January 9-15). At that time, a particularly violent flu epidemic was rampant in Austria.
Much more affected men
As Statistics Austria CEO Tobias Thomas said in a broadcast, the increase in deaths in the first 47 weeks of 2020 affected men (plus 9.4 percent) significantly more than women (plus 3 , 9 percent). According to the assessment, there were already a few calendar weeks in the first half of April and since mid-September in which deaths were slightly above the range of the last five years. However, Statistics Austria does not see a “worrying development” until October 19, when a weekly increase in deaths is recorded.
