Covid led to the deaths of more than 150,000 people in Spain since the start of the pandemic, according to latest official data
Nine out of ten of those who died were over 65 years of age and in three and a half years there were more male than female victims
Spain's INE national institute of statistics has released details of the official number of people in Spain who died with Covid-associated illnesses since the start of the pandemic.
From March 2020, when the first massive contagions of the coronavirus were detected in Spain, until 30 June this year, the illnesses triggered by SARS-CoV-2 have cost the lives of 150,379 in the country of whom there is scientific proof or well-founded suspicion. The actual, but unconfirmed, fatalities are certain to be a few hundred or thousands more people.
Covid-associated illnesses have therefore been the leading direct cause of death among Spaniards uninterruptedly for the last three years, particularly in 2020 and 2021, but also in 2022. However, according to data provided by the INE, the decline of the pandemic began to be observed last year. With 31,606 deaths, Covid was once again the pathology that led to the deaths of most, but the number was 7,838 fewer than a year earlier, a decrease of 20% in twelve months.
Coming to an end
Confirmation that this infection is possibly coming to an end is that in the first six months of this year, according to provisional data, the official death toll from Covid was 3,760, adding up to an 82% decrease over the declining lethal incidence of this pathology in the same period in 2022.
In fact, for the first time since the spring of 2020, the group of infectious diseases, with Covid at the top, ceased to be among the five most lethal pathologies in Spain between January and June. The list, as was usual before the pandemic, is headed by diseases of the circulatory system, especially heart attacks and strokes, tumours (especially lung cancer) and respiratory diseases, with sharp increases in pneumonia and chronic lung injuries.
The bulk of these more than 150,000 Covid-related deaths happened in two quarters. Between March and May 2020, with the first wave of the coronavirus, and in the first quarter of 2021, with the third wave of SARS-CoV-2, the tide of contagions resulting from the arrival of cold weather and the relaxation of the mask and the safety distance rules at family and friend gatherings at Christmas 2020.
The data compiled over the last three and a half years by the INE shows very clearly the profile of the main victims of the coronavirus. Slightly more than nine out of every ten deaths in the pandemic, 92.9% of the deaths recorded, corresponded to people in Spain over 65 years of age. The average age of deaths with Covid was 82.14 years. The age bias is evident. Some 1.3% of the deceased (1,921) were under 50 years of age while 27.3% were over 90 years of age.
The other bias, although much less, was gender. 53.5% of those who died were male.
