Portugal registered 124,755 deaths last year, of which 6,822 were due to Covid-19, which corresponds to 5.5% of the total, according to preliminary data from Vital Statistics, for December, published by the National Statistics Institute (INE). In all, there were 430 fewer deaths (-0.3%) than in 2021, but 1,035 more (+0.8) than in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, and 12,412 more (+11%) compared to 2019.

According to ECO, although in the first two months of 2022 there was a “marked reduction in mortality” compared to the same months of 2021, the total number of deaths registered last year was only “slightly lower” than 2021, which was due, in particular, to the increase in mortality between March and July.

In the last month of 2022, 12,244 people died, 772 more deaths compared to December 2021, that is, mortality increased by 6.7%. But, according to the statistical office, the increase was even greater in the chain variation, with 2,047 more deaths (+20.1%) compared to November. In the last week of the year alone, there were 2,669 deaths, a figure that exceeded the 2015-2019 average.

Simultaneously, in December, the number of deaths from Covid-19 rose to 278, representing 2.3% of the total and 51 more compared to the previous month. Compared to December 2021, there was a decrease of 241 deaths caused by the coronavirus, that is, a reduction of 46.4%.