Up to twice as many coronavirus deaths as registered

The number of people in the Netherlands who died of Covid-19 is most likely between 50 and 100 percent higher than recorded by public health institute RIVM, Statistics Netherlands reported on Wednesday after using a new method to determine the excess mortality - when more people die than could be expected for a certain time based on previous years.

Between March 9 and May 24, the RIVM reported 5,900 coronavirus related deaths. In those eleven weeks, the excess mortality was between 8,593 and 11,691. According to the stats office, these are the minimum and maximum numbers of people who died of the coronavirus in that period. 

That means that, according to the stats office's new calculations, the actual number of coronavirus deaths between March 9 an May 24 is 1.5 to twice as high as recorded. Statistics Netherlands said that this conclusion can be drawn in 95 percent certainty.

It has been known since the start of the coronavirus crisis that more people have died than are officially registered. This mainly has to do with a shortage of Covid-19 tests in the first phase of the outbreak.