MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th May, 2021) The European Union registered a steady decrease in excess mortality rate in the first months of 2021, after seeing deaths rise by almost 41% above average levels in November, official figures showed.
"In 2021, excess mortality in the EU started to fall back in the first two months: +16% in January and +5% in February after as much as +41% in November 2020. In March 2021 the rate registered a slight increase to 9%," the EU statistics agency Eurostat said.
Although excess mortality was observed during most of 2020, the agency broke it up in two complete cycles. The first one lasted from March to May, reaching a peak rate of 25.1% in April, while the second one continued from August to February of this year, peaking in November.
The agency noted that, although the increase in excess mortality largely coincided with the coronavirus pandemic, the indicator does not discriminate among the causes of death.
