What do German statistics say about coronavirus deaths?

In Germany there were more deaths from the 2018 flu wave than from the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. We are not on a conspiracy or denial blog, but data in hand is what emerges from the preliminary surveys released a few days ago by the Federal Statistical Office.

The German Statistical Office published data on deaths in Germany until the end of April on 22 May. According to what was declared by the institute of statistics, these are not definitive and therefore not necessarily complete data.

Data (preliminary) shows that the wave of coronaviruses caused different fluctuations compared to the mortality recorded in previous years.

In 2020, up to the 17th calendar week, 328,209 people died, i.e. 1,250 more people than in the same period of 2019 (326,963). In the same period of 2018, 354,924 died in total, 339,910 in 2017 and 312,246 in 2016.

The German statistics office writes about:

"When considering the trend of mortality in the statistics, it is necessary to take into account the typical fluctuations related to the period of influenza from mid-December to mid-April. This becomes clear when looking at the data from previous years: in March 2019 for example, around 86,400 people died. In March 2018, i.e. in a year in which the flu was particularly severe, deaths were 107,100. Even without the pandemic caused by the coronavirus, in the typical period of the flu, the number of deaths can vary considerably The number of deaths in the age group over 65 is particularly affected by these fluctuations.

According to preliminary mortality data, the effects of the flu wave in 2020 were very mild compared to previous years. According to the preliminary count, in fact, in January 2020 about 85,150 people died. In February 2020 there were 79,600 deaths. Even in March 2020 with a total of at least 86,600 deaths, the monthly increase shows that there has been no significant growth in the number of deaths compared to previous years.

However, since the last week of March, death numbers have been higher than the average for the years from 2016 to 2019. This upward deviation peaked in the 15th calendar week (from 6 to April 12). In the sixteenth and seventeenth calendar week, however, the number of deaths decreased significantly compared to previous weeks, however deaths remained higher than the average of previous years.

Kalenderwoche	Media 2016 - 2019	2018	2020	Differenza 2020/Media 2016-19
KW1	19339	19342	18845	-494
KW2	19593	18770	19394	-199
KW3	19524	19187	19119	-405
KW4	19855	19171	18896	-959
KW5	20366	19558	19716	-650
KW6	20319	20086	18944	-1375
KW7	20636	21254	19541	-1095
KW8	20988	22888	18850	-2138
KW9	21532	25535	19345	-2187
KW10	21288	26777	19501	-1787
KW11	20440	24385	19695	-745
KW12	19555	22777	19527	-28
KW13	18939	20906	19494	555
KW14	18480	20038	20368	1888
KW15	17893	19165	20144	2251
KW16	17357	17992	18856	1499
KW17	17407	17093	17974	567
Totale	333511	354924	328209	-5302