According to the INSEE statistical report at the start of 2021, the number of deaths has increased sharply compared to last year, with more than 2,100 deaths per day on average.

In the first half of February, this average dropped back below 2,000, indicates the institute, which will henceforth favor the comparison with the year 2019, the last year excluding Covid.

The number of deaths, all causes combined, recorded in France between January 1 and February 15 was 14% higher than that recorded over the same period of 2020. This is what INSEE indicated on Friday in its report. weekly deaths during the Covid-19 epidemic.

Compared to the same period of 2019, the increase is however only 6%, a difference which is explained by the fact that the seasonal flu was more deadly in early 2019 than in early 2020, said the statistical institute.

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Since the beginning of January, mortality has been relatively stable.

On average, 2,135 people died every day during the first half of January, an average that remained stable during the second half.

During the first half of February, the average number of daily deaths "would be slightly lower", slightly below 2,000, according to still provisional data.

Disparities between regions 

By way of comparison, at the time of the peak of the second wave, between 1 and 15 November, some 2,260 deaths were recorded every day on average, which is 33% more than in the same period of 2019. From March , the monitoring of mortality in 2021 will involve "favoring the comparison with the year 2019, a year without a Covid epidemic", even if the seasonal flu was virulent that year, also explained INSEE.

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Compared to 2019, therefore, the excess deaths observed between January 1 and February 15, 2021 is the largest in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (+ 17%), as well as in the Grand Est and in Burgundy. Franche-Comté (+ 15%).

Conversely, there were fewer deaths in early 2021 than in early 2019 in Corsica (-9%), Brittany (-3%) and Île-de-France (-1%).

Over the whole of 2020, France recorded 54,700 more deaths than in 2019, i.e. an excess mortality of 9%.