The coronavirus continues to reap its deadly harvest. One of the countries of Central Europe, the Czech Republic, cannot yet cope with the pandemic. According to the statistics department of this country, January this year broke the records for the number of deaths. Mortality in the first month of 2021 exceeded the figures for the autumn wave of Covid-19 and became the highest since 1950.
Data published in Prague indicate that 15,900 people died in the Czech Republic in January. This is about 5,300 more deaths than the average over the past 5 years, when the January figures ranged from 9,500 to 12,400. This is the highest number of deaths in 70 years.
“Historically, on a time scale of absolute data, since 1950, the number of deaths in January has never been higher than this year. The closest thing to this indicator was January 1970, during the so-called” Hong Kong flu “epidemic. . Then this number reached 15 thousand 300 people. ” This is how the director of the Czech Statistical Institute (CSU) Marek Roycek commented on the new data.
In January of this year, there are 148 deaths per 100 thousand citizens, while this month in 2015-2019 there were 50 percent fewer deaths – about 100 people.
The day of January 6, 2021 has already been inscribed in the history of the Czech Republic with the largest number of deaths – 571 people have died. The statistics do not provide causes of death, but the so-called excess mortality is associated primarily with the coronavirus pandemic, which is logical.
According to the Czech Ministry of Health, 4,767 patients with coronavirus died in January 2021, which was the second largest figure since November 2020, when 15,700 deaths were recorded. Thus, the figures for January exceeded the figures for November, when the Czech Republic was covered by the autumn wave of the pandemic.
As noted on the institute’s home page Michaela Nemechkova from the department of demographic statistics CSU, increased mortality was recorded in January in all parts of the country. The only exception was the capital city of Prague. If in percentages throughout the Czech Republic the growth was expressed in figures above 60 percent, then the increase in the number of deaths among Prague residents was noted by 27 percent. According to statistics, most of the deaths were people in old age – usually over 65 years old.
Actually, the Czech Republic is no exception among countries suffering from coronavirus – it is people in old age, burdened with chronic diseases, who become the first target for the deadly Covid-19 infection.