Corona: significantly higher excess mortality in Switzerland than in spring

Covid-19: significantly higher excess mortality in Switzerland than in the first wave

With winter and the second wave, excess mortality also returned, and this time much more than in spring. Switzerland is also in a bad position compared to neighboring countries.

More than 5,000 people have died from Covid-19 in Switzerland. In an international comparison, Switzerland has had significantly higher numbers than other European countries in recent weeks.

>> Coronavirus: All the news in the live ticker

The fact that the coronavirus claims many lives is also demonstrated by data on excess mortality from the statistics platform “Our World in Data”. These show how many more people (of a certain age group) die than usual in a season. Current deaths are compared to the average from 2015 to 2019.

During the peak of the first wave in March and April, about one and a half times more people over the age of 85 died than usual. Meanwhile, excess mortality has increased further and is almost 80 percent in the oldest age group.

Mortality among people aged 15-64 is within the normal range or even slightly below average compared to previous years. But the older an age group, the bigger its curve.

Excess mortality in Switzerland by age group

If you compare the excess mortality with the values ​​of our neighbors, it is clear: Also Austria it is currently struggling with a significant excess mortality. The other countries have recently been at a significantly lower level; however, there is still no data from them for the last few weeks.

Comparison with neighboring countries

In this comparison of excess mortality, Italy stands out: in the spring, almost twice as many people died there than in previous years, and this was observed in all age groups.

However, the proportion of the elderly population is not the same everywhere, skewing the graph a bit. Countries with older populations have a higher excess mortality rate for purely mathematical reasons, a fact to keep in mind when comparing.

For better comparability, only the excess mortality of people older than 85 could be compared, as follows. Here now we are moving forward similar level to Austria. However, one should not be too optimistic about the downtrend due to the late reports.

Comparison with neighboring countries for people older than 85 years

Of course, those over the age of 85 only make up a portion of the population here. Italy, for example, reached its previous peak among people aged 65 to 74: 108 percent died in a week in the spring. more than twice as many people of this age group than usual.

Therefore, for a comparison with other selected countries, we again examine excess mortality in all age groups. Spain achieved a death rate in excess of more than 150 percent in the first wave. But now it is deeper than ours.

Sweden, which caused a sensation in spring with its Sonderweg, currently has little excess mortality. The situation is similar in many Asian countries.

Comparison with selected countries