COVID-19 started to increase again in the ranking of the most common causes of death, moving from tenth to eighth place in July

After three months of steady decline, the summer wave of the pandemic caused an increase in deaths from the infection of COVID-19. In July, 83 people succumbed to it. In spite of that, the overall death rate dropped to 3%, which is the lowest value since August 2021. From a regional perspective, the death rate increased only in Banskobystrický and Nitriansky kraj.

The number of deaths in Slovakia increased slightly again after a three-month decrease. In total, almost 4,4 thousand people died in July 2022, which was by 3% more people than the value of the five-year average of 2015-2019 before the onset of the pandemic¹⁾. This follows from preliminary data on the number of deaths and causes of death in July 2022 published by the Statistical Office of the SR. The Office also clarified the data for the first six months of this year.

"Despite the fact that the number of people who died from the infection of COVID-19 increased and there was a significant increase in the number of victims from diseases of the respiratory system, the overall death rate decreased by half, month-on-month. Its growth was mainly slowed down by the lower number of people dying from external causes, from tumors and approximately the same number of victims as the five-year average before the pandemic from the most common cause of death - diseases of the circulatory system," said Zuzana Podmanická, the Director of the Department of Population Statistics of the SOSR.

A lower number of deaths than the five-year average before the pandemic was also recorded in the group of people in pre-productive age (from 0 to 14 years) and significantly lower in productive age (from 15 to 64 years). Excess mortality was manifested only in the group of seniors over 65 years of age, which is the most numerous of the three basic age groups in the structure of the deceased. In July 2022, it reached 9%, when more than 3.4 thousand seniors died in total (they represented more than 78% of the total number of deaths). Similar to the previous months, the situation was worse in the subgroup of the younger seniors (from 65 to 74 years old), in which almost by 13% more people died in July compared to the five-year average.

Only Žilinský kraj recorded a lower number of deaths compared to the five-year average before the onset of the pandemic (by 1%). The remaining seven regions reached excess mortality, the lowest in Bratislavský kraj (0.6%) and the highest in Košický kraj (6.2%).

Compared to June, the situation in the mortality rate worsened only in two of the eight regions of Slovakia, namely in Banskobystrický and Nitriansky kraj. Trnavský kraj recorded the most significant improvement of the situation.

COVID-19 has once again risen in the list of the most common causes of death

In July, 83 people died as a result of the COVID-19 infection, which is by 2.5 times more than the month before and four times more than in the same month last year. Its share in all deaths also increased. With almost 2%, it moved from tenth to eighth place among 22 disease groups²⁾. In May, it was the ninth most common cause of death in Slovakia.

In the seventh month of the year, the most common causes of death were diseases of the circulatory system, which represented 45% of the deaths (almost 2 thousand people) and tumors for 25% (1.1 thousand people). These two groups of deaths have long been among the most common causes of death. Less than one percent more people died from diseases of the circulatory system in July compared to the average of the previous five years. In case of tumors, almost by 5% fewer people died than the five-year average before the pandemic.

In July, the first five most common causes²⁾ were completed by deaths from diseases of the respiratory system (9%), digestive system (6%) and external causes of death (4%).