Following figures that were presented by the Ifo Institute on Friday, approximately 180,000 more people passed away in Germany during the three years that the COVID-19 epidemic was active than would have otherwise been predicted.
During the years 2020 to 2022, people over the age of 80 accounted for about two-thirds of all extra fatalities, whereas the number of deaths among those under the age of 60 was approximately 13,000. The year 2022 turned out to be the deadliest, with an excess mortality rate of close to 74,000 compared to 68,000 the year before. However, it’s possible that not all of those deaths were caused by COVID-19.
Joachim Ragnitz, the managing director of the Dresden branch of the Ifo, speculated that summer heat waves and outbreaks of flu at the end of the year likely played a role in the surprising acceleration that occurred in 2022, despite the fact that the reasons for the acceleration in 2022 remain unknown.
The institute determined the anticipated number of fatalities for the time period by first determining the average number of deaths that occurred between the years 2016 and 2019, and then making adjustments for increasing life expectancy as well as shifts in the age structure.
In spite of the fact that Germany started relaxing its Covid restrictions at the beginning of 2022, the country this month joined other members of the European Union in imposing new testing requirements on passengers traveling from China in response to an increase in the number of cases in that country.