This is shown by data published by Statistics Austria on Thursday. Accordingly, from July 18 to 31, a fifth more people died than the average for the years 2015 to 2019. The causes of death have not yet been evaluated. Both the heat and the unusually large number of corona diseases for July could have contributed to the increased mortality.
Statistics Austria reported a particularly large number of deaths in the penultimate week of July. 1,830 people died in Austria – a quarter more than the average for the years 2015 to 2019. Statistics Austria reported 1,706 deaths on Thursday for the last week of July. That is 15 percent more than the average.
Both weeks were characterized by great heat: the July highs reported by the ZAMG were between July 20th and 25th in all federal states. It was the hottest at 37.8 degrees in Seibersdorf in Lower Austria. Summer heat waves usually lead to an increase in deaths.
The many corona diseases were also unusual this year. Unlike in the first two years of the pandemic, there was a larger wave of infections this summer. Accordingly, AGES also records a comparatively large number of deaths: 320 people died in July after a corona infection – five times as many as in July 2021 (64) and seven times as many as in 2020 (45).
For comparison, Statistics Austria uses the five years before the outbreak of the corona pandemic, i.e. the years 2015 to 2019. However, the mortality rate in July this year was also higher than in the first two corona years 2020 and 2021. Specifically, deaths occurred in the calendar weeks 27 to 30 6,672 people this year – eleven percent more than in the corresponding weeks of the previous year (6,027) and 15 percent more than in 2020 (5,816).
Source: Nachrichten
