Up to 2,300 more deaths occurred in the State during the first 11 months of the pandemic compared to the same period in previous years, according to an analysis of death notices posted on Rip.ie.
Examining 30,000 death notices on the website between March 2020 and February 2021, researchers from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) estimated there was excess mortality in the Republic of between 2,034 and 2,338.
According to figures published by the Department of Health on March 1st, there had been 4,319 Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland up to that point.
Excess mortality measures the number of deaths over and above what would be expected under normal circumstances. The CSO notes that Rip.ie provides a more timely source for monitoring mortality trends than official death registrations.
Increase
The researchers also found that the increase in postings was most notable during April 2020, followed by the first two months of this year.
In April of last year there were around 3,500 death notices posted to Rip.ie, a 40 per cent increase on the average number (2,500) posted during April in 2014 to 2018.
There was a 22 per cent increase in death notices uploaded in January of this year compared to the January average for the years 2014 to 2018. There were approximately 3,900 death notices on the site in January 2021 compared to an average of 3,200 across the other four years.
Meanwhile, the number of death notices posted in February 2021 (approximately 3,150) was 17 per cent higher than the same month’s average across 2014 to 2018. In those four years an average of 2,700 deaths were posted to the website during the month of February.
Obtain
Researchers could also obtain from around 80 per cent of the death notices where a person died. Many of the notices used similar phrasing to note a person died “suddenly, at home” or “in the tender loving care of the staff” of a particular nursing home.
The percentage of death notices classified as “at home” went from an average of 16 per cent during each month between October 2019 and April 2020 to 23 per cent between May and December of last year. This then decreased to 19 per cent in January 2021 before rising again to above one in five in both February and March.
Between 23 and 25 per cent of deaths occurred in Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) registered facilities for older people in the months from October 2019 to March 2020. In April 2020 approximately a third of all notices were for people who died in older persons’ facilities.
