The European Union (EU) reported no excess deaths in February, the first time since February 2020 and the start of the pandemic, Eurostat said on Tuesday.
In the same month, Portugal recorded the third highest rate of excess deaths (6%) compared to the benchmark after Cyprus and Greece (12% each).
According to data released by the EU statistics office, in February, the excess mortality rate fell to -2%, falling below the reference value (the average number of deaths for the same period 2016-2019).
In comparison, excess deaths were 8% in February 2022 (39,000 excess deaths), 6% in February 2021 (26,000 excess deaths) and almost -3% in February 2020.
The EU average excess mortality remained high in the fourth quarter of 2022, reaching 12% in October, 9% in November and 19% in December, the highest in a year.
In January 2023, the indicator fell to 6%, reaching negative values in February (-2%).
Covid-19, caused by the SARS-Cov-2 virus, was declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020 after appearing in China in December 2019.
Nearly 763 million cases of covid-19 have already been reported, resulting in more than 6.8 million deaths, and more than 13 billion doses of vaccines have been administered, according to the latest data from the World Health Organization.
In Portugal, covid-19 has caused over 26,000 deaths with over 5.5 million infections.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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