{"id":15787,"date":"2020-08-04T16:04:35","date_gmt":"2020-08-04T16:04:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/?p=15787"},"modified":"2022-02-27T00:29:58","modified_gmt":"2022-02-27T00:29:58","slug":"how-has-covid-19-contributed-to-excess-deaths-in-northern-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/topics\/health\/how-has-covid-19-contributed-to-excess-deaths-in-northern-ireland\/","title":{"rendered":"How has COVID-19 contributed to excess deaths in Northern Ireland?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What are \u201cexcess deaths\u201d, and how does the figure for Northern Ireland compare with elsewhere in the UK and across Europe?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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[This explainer article is part of the COVID-19 Information Dissemination (COVID-19 ID) Project<\/a> \u2014 a partnership between Community Development and Health Network (CDHN)<\/a> and FactCheckNI<\/a>. Its aim is to improve people\u2019s health literacy about COVID-19 by providing accurate and up-to-date information<\/a>, which will increase knowledge, understanding and confidence and enable people to make good health decisions.]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cExcess deaths\u201d are defined<\/a> as deaths during a given period that are greater than the usual number of deaths in similar historic time periods. Variations above or below the predicted average may indicate an event, for example a strain of influenza that resulted in more deaths than usual. For 2020, the most significant event associated with excess deaths is likely to be the presence of the novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excess death figures are a better measure across countries than counting deaths from COVID-19, due to the different ways<\/a> that deaths associated with COVID-19 are counted. Alongside people counted in figures<\/a> for those who tested positive for COVID-19 and subsequently died, other people die from COVID-19 symptoms without being tested for the disease. FactCheckNI has published articles about these different measures (1<\/a>) (2<\/a>) (3<\/a>). Analysing all deaths takes into account indirect effects of the pandemic<\/a>, such as deaths that may be related to changes in access to healthcare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cumulative excess deaths and COVID-19 related deaths in Northern Ireland<\/strong>
On 28 July 2020, the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) published a bulletin<\/a> that includes a chart of the cumulative number of excess deaths and COVID-19 related deaths in Northern Ireland between 1 March and 30 June 2020. Over this four month period, there were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n