One in ten people who died in 2020 had been infected with Sars-CoV-2 Shutterstock

One in ten people who died in 2020 had been infected with Sars-CoV-2 Shutterstock

Between 13 March 2020--the date of the first coronavirus death in Luxembourg--and the end of the year, 437 more people died than during the same period in 2019, Statec said. This corresponds roughly to the 501 virus deaths reported by the government for these months of the pandemic.

There were fewer deaths at the start of 2020 because of a mild flu season.

The number of deaths overall was 8.5% higher than in 2019. Out of the 4,649 people who died, 10.8% died after being diagnosed with coronavirus. This rate was at 13.2% when only taking into account deaths that occurred between March and December.

Between 1 November and 31 December, the number of people who died after testing positive for the coronavirus more than tripled, from 161 to 507. Compared to the previous 2018-2019 average, this represented an excess mortality of 39.1% for November and 38.9% for December.

The mortality rate of 7.4‰ in 2020 was the highest since the early 2010s. The average age of the deceased was 80.4 for women and 74.1 for men, which corresponds to previous years, according to Statec.