(Reuters) (Reuters) – In November, 27% more people perished in Europe than usual. This is the largest increase in a single year since a new wave of COVID-19 swept through the region. The official figures were released Friday.
The EU statistics office Eurostat stated that excess mortality, which is the increase in deaths from any cause, has continued to vary between member states.
Bulgaria and Romania experienced the highest mortality rates in November, the last month for which data for all 27 EU member states are available, with excess mortality at 88 percent and 84% respectively, whereas Italy was able to record 4 more deaths.
The coronavirus outbreak has increased in the eastern part of Europe since September and has seen Bulgaria having the highest number of daily cases in recent weeks, driven by the highly infectious Omicron variant.
Only about 30% of Bulgarians are fully vaccinated, the lowest proportion in the EU, and Romania is the bloc’s second-least vaccination-free state, with just 40 percent of the population immunised.
Sweden was able to avoid strict lockdowns during the health crisis, was the only country Eurostat included that didn’t show an increase in deaths due to excess in November. The country saw a decrease of 0.5 percent.
The highest rate of excessive deaths in the EU since the pandemic started was in November at 40%.
Although large increases in excess deaths are often associated with COVID-19 epidemics Eurostat does not break down numbers by cause of death, gender, or age.
