Almost half of the deaths recorded from March 16 to 23 occurred at home or elsewhere outside the hospital – News

“Although the highest proportion of deaths has always occurred in a hospital, since March 2 the proportion of deaths at home and elsewhere was higher than the 2015-2019 average, reaching week 12 (March 16-23). ) 46, 1% of the total deaths that week ”, writes the INE in an information on the monitoring of the covid-19 pandemic.

According to the available data, until August 30, this year 79,860 deaths were registered, higher than previous years. Compared to the average number of deaths for the same period of 2015-2019, in 2020 there were another 4,791 deaths.

In the first two months of 2020, the number of deaths was, in general, lower than the average values ​​observed in the last five years, but while in previous years mortality continued to decline in the following months, in March of this year it began To increase.

Between March 2, the date on which the first cases of covid-19 were diagnosed in Portugal, and August 30, 57,971 people died, 6,312 more than the average registered in the same period of 2015-2019. “Of these, 1,822 were assigned to covid-19,” says the INE.

Between March 2 and August 30, 28,400 men and 29,391 women died (more than 2,597 and more than 3,715, respectively, in relation to the average for the same period under analysis).

According to the INE, the increase in deaths in 2020, compared to the 2015-2019 average, reached a first peak in the week of April 6 to 12 and registered the highest value in the week of July 13 to 19, about 800 more. deaths, to which “the fact that the month of July 2020 was extremely hot” was not unknown.

“The increase in mortality observed since March, compared to the average of the last five years, is only partially explained by deaths attributed to COVID-19,” says the INE.

More than 70% of the deaths were in people 75 and older.

The greatest increase in the number of deaths in relation to the 2015-2019 average was registered in the North region, with the exception of the last week of June and the first of July, when the increase was greater in the Metropolitan Area of ​​Lisbon.