Coronavirus Increases Excess Mortality among Slovaks in October Again

Bratislava, November 29 (TASR) – As the fourth most common cause of death in Slovakia, novel coronavirus again increased excess mortality in the country in October, the Statistics Office reported on Monday.

Overall excess mortality reached 16 percent in October. The highest excess mortality was seen in the age category of younger seniors (between 65-74 years). The worst situation was in Presov region, with the number of deaths reaching as high as 42 percent above the five-year average.

Excess mortality compared to the five-year average was reported by seven Slovak regions in October, with the figure ranging between 4 and 42 percent. Besides Presov region, the situation was also bad in Zilina region, where excess mortality amounted to 23 percent. Conversely, the number of deaths in Bratislava region was slightly lower than the average seen over the past five years.

Zuzana Podmanicka, director of the office’s population statistics department, said that 439 people succumbed to coronavirus in October, which was four times as many as in September. “The death toll was 10 percent lower than last October, when the impacts of the second pandemic wave began to appear significantly. Coronavirus has now climbed to be the fourth most frequent cause of death in Slovakia, accounting for over 8 percent of all deaths, a significant jump for the past three months,” she said.

Statistic data also reveal that over 4,100 people in the 65+ age category died in October, which was 18 percent above the five-year average. However, the highest (24-percent) excess mortality in October was seen in the sub-category of younger seniors.

The Statistics Office recorded excess mortality amounting to 16 percent in the 75+ category.

Almost 80 percent of people who died of coronavirus in October were above 65 years of age, with most of them being older than 75. People at productive age made up 20 percent of all those who died of coronavirus in October, up almost 10 percent year-on-year.

Over 15,800 people died of coronavirus in Slovakia from March 2020 to the end of October 2021.