Coronavirus: Eastern Europe significantly more affected by Covid-related mortality
A Franco-German demographic study on excess Covid mortality by region in Europe shows that the east of the European Union has paid a significantly heavier price than its west.
Published on 09/17/2024 at 5:34 p.m.
According to this study carried out by the National Institute of Demographic Studies (Ined) and its German counterpart, the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB), it is first and foremost the points of arrival of the pandemic on the continent which are most affected by excess mortality.
“In the provinces of Bergamo, Cremona and Piacenza (northern Italy) the loss of life expectancy was particularly spectacular, close to four years” during the first wave of the pandemic, in 2020, indicates the summary of this study published Tuesday by Ined.
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Overall, “the regions of northern Italy, southern Switzerland, central Spain and eastern Poland lost more than two and a half years of life expectancy” during this first wave.
But in 2021, “excess mortality shifted to eastern Europe.” “The regions where life expectancy losses exceeded two years were in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia,” the study notes.
“Only one Italian region and one Spanish region were part of this group, even though these two countries had been badly affected in 2020,” she adds.
Ultimately, “among the 50 (European) regions most affected” by excess mortality in 2020 and 2021, “those located in Eastern Europe are largely in the majority: there are 36 Polish regions, six Slovak, two Czech, one Hungarian as well as the two Lithuanian regions.”
As for Sweden, which had followed a divergent path from other European countries by refusing lockdowns, the results of its regions in terms of mortality are comparable to those of its neighbors.
