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In epidemiological week 30, between July 20 and 26, Colombia had “the peak or the point of maximum confirmed covid-19 mortality, with 1,991 deaths”, explained yesterday the director of the National Administrative Department of Statistics (Dane), Juan Daniel Oviedo, in a press conference when presenting the report on mortality in the pandemic from March 2 to August 23.
After week 30, Colombia began to see a decrease in confirmed weekly deaths from this cause. In week 31 there were 1,866; in the 32, 1,640; at 33, 1,513; and in 34, deaths from confirmed deaths totaled 1,444. In fact, the decrease from the peak to the last week of analysis (from 30 to 34) was 27.5 percent.
The report on deaths from covid-19 in the country, which is part of the vital statistics of Dane, includes confirmed deaths, under investigation and also a comparison with those caused by pneumonia and other influences and excess mortality.
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In the period of time analyzed, they died in Colombia 17,803 people for covid-19 confirmed by molecular PCR tests, 7,257 classified as suspects and 3,984 for pneumonia and other influences, according to the information downloaded by the Dane from the Unique Registry of Affiliates (RUAF-ND), the Ministry of Health, Sivigila and field analyzes.
(Also read: Mass vaccination against covid could be in mid-2021: WHO)
According to the director of the Dane, July 21 saw the highest volume of confirmed deaths from covid-19, with 311. And the highest date of suspects was August 3, with 150 deaths.
It is worth noting that between July 1 and August 23, the highest number of confirmed and suspected deaths occurred, with 12,792 and 4,908, respectively. What determined a daily average in that period of 237 deaths confirmed by covid-19 and 91 suspects.
(Also: ‘Covid may be the leading cause of death in Latin America this year’).
The Dane clarifies that this information differs from the daily reports delivered by the Ministry of Health because it is fed directly by the providers to the surveillance system established by the authorities for this purpose. For the sample, it is that the portfolio on August 23 had confirmed 17,316 deaths, a difference resulting from the delay in determining exactly the date of death. Therefore, according to experts, these data provided by Dane are the closest approximation to the impact of the pandemic in the country in terms of deaths.
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Men, most affected
The Dane report also shows that, in terms of death, the pandemic has affected men more than women, not only in confirmed cases but also in suspected ones.
In fact, generally speaking, 64 percent of the deceased are men and in a ratio of 28 percent fewer are women.
(You may be interested: Study indicates how to reduce 50% of covid-19 patients in ICU).
When reviewing the ages, 82.6 percent of the deaths are concentrated in people over 55 years old and when making a comparison between men and women over 60 it is found that while 45.9 percent of the total of them died after of that age, only 28.5 percent correspond to them. The lowest death rate is below the age of 20, with 0.6 percent of confirmed deaths.
By regions
Bogotá concentrated 27.2 percent of the deaths confirmed by covid-19 and 18.9 percent of the suspected ones in the country, adding between them 6,219 (4,844 and 1,375, respectively). It is followed by the Atlantic, which had 3,130 confirmed deaths from covid (17.6 percent compared to the country) and 1,049 suspects (14.5 percent). Valle contributes 9.3 percent of deaths and Antioquia, 7.8.
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Excess mortality
The Dane report refers that when comparing the deaths registered this year against the average of the last five years, from week 22 (May 25 to 31) a significant increase in deaths from all causes began to be seen, to the point that in week 31 there were 7,819. Deaths from natural causes peaked in week 31, with 7,264.
The excess mortality from all causes was 18.9 percent compared to what was expected. Natural causes were 24.2 percent above average. While the expected deaths from external causes were 18.8 percent below. The maximum decrease in this indicator coincided with the quarantine in April, with a record of 39 percent of deaths less than expected.
In this period 138,024 died from all causes; of which 2,341 were for violence, 17,803 for confirmed covid and 7,257 suspects.
Between weeks 1 and 34 of this year, 177,796 deaths were registered from all causes. If the 25,060 are subtracted for confirmed and suspected covid-19, there are only 152,376 deaths in 2020 that would be compared to the 149,892 that occurred in the same period on average in the last five years.
This means that from the 18.9% excess mortality reported, we would go to an excess mortality of just 1.9%. And it could be said, then, that the pandemic put 17 percentage points of excess mortality from all causes, which as of August 23 was 18.9%.
(See: ‘Countries are not seeing the true magnitude of the pandemic’)
By populations
The Dane showed that 90.3 percent of the deaths from covid belonged to strata 1, 2 and 3. And on the other hand, stratum 6 only accounted for 1 percent of deaths.
On the education side, 28.8 percent of the deceased men and 14.6 of the women only had basic primary education. And 8.6 percent of them and 4.3 of them reached basic secondary education. For their part, 3.5 percent of the male deaths were professionals and with this level of education, 1.1 percent of the deceased.
23.2 percent of men were married and the highest death rate in women with respect to marital status was contributed by widows, with 9.8 percent.
(Read on: ‘Countries are not seeing the true scale of the pandemic.’)
‘Poor households were more exposed’
Juan Daniel Oviedo, director of Dane, answered some questions to EL TIEMPO.
What impact does poverty have on deaths caused by the new coronavirus?
Mortality from covid-19 is concentrated in people over 60 years of age (195 deaths compared to 50, in the national average, per 100,000 inhabitants), as well as in the educational level up to basic primary (a little more than 40% of the total deaths). On the other hand, for 2018 it was evidenced that the incidence of monetary poverty for households with these demographic and educational profiles was almost 10 percentage points higher than the national 27%.
This could confirm that poor households, with older and less educated adults, not being able to respect the rules of isolation, due to the need to find sustenance, were more exposed to the pandemic, which is reflected in their high mortality.
(Also read: Breastfeeding as the best antidote against chronic malnutrition).
In terms of mortality rate, which have been the most affected regions in Colombia?
Although the total mortality rate due to covid-19 was almost 50 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants for the entire country, the mortality rates of the Amazon and Atlantic close to 170 and 150 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, respectively, stand out. Additionally, Bogotá, in addition to leading geographically in terms of the volume of deaths from covid-19, has a mortality rate of 80 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.
There is one suspicious death for every 2.4 confirmed, when will those deaths be clarified?
Clarifying these deaths is part of a very rigorous process in which the Ministry of Health convenes a specialized committee to reclassify the cases based on inputs provided by the Sivigila, of the INS, epidemiological links, the results of field studies and an analysis of the documentation through which the death from covid-19 is technically confirmed or ruled out.
After that, the Minsalud reclassifies the case in the Unique Registry of Affiliates, in which the discarded suspects are classified according to the pathology that caused their death and those confirmed by covid-19 are included in the official lists of the pandemic. The Dane then recodes the case and cleans its statistics.
(Read on: ‘This virus shows how vulnerable we are’: Peter C. Doherty).
Specifically, on September 30 we will release a report on these cases with a cut-off to July 31, this with the support of the Ministry of Health.
HEALTH UNIT
