More than 11,000 additional deaths. Between July 1 and August 31, France recorded an excess mortality of 12% compared to 2019, the last reference year before the Covid-19 epidemic. A figure to be compared with the 19,000 additional deaths recorded in 2003, a year already marked by a scorching summer.
Southern regions particularly affected
According to INSEE, this excess mortality still seems linked to Covid-19, but also to the heat wave which hit the country. “Nevertheless, the comparison with the year 2019 presents limits for the analysis, explains the institute in a press release. On the one hand, the summer of 2019 had itself been marked by two episodes of very intense and widespread heat waves across the territory. On the other hand, the population grew and aged between 2019 and 2020.”
One certainty, it is especially the southern regions which are the most affected by the increase in deaths: Occitanie (+ 18.1%, Corsica (+ 17.9%), Provence-Côte d’Azur (+ 16.5% ) and Nouvelle-Aquitaine (+14.9%). Three regions in the north-west are also affected: Pays-de-la-Loire (+16.9%), Brittany (+13.9%) and Normandy. (+13.8%).
At the level of the departments, those which have undergone the greatest change in mortality are Tarn-et-Garonne (+40.5%), Charente-Maritime (+28.5%) and Ardèche (+27, 4%). In the number of additional deaths, these are Bouches-du-Rhône (+ 448 deaths), Var (+382) and North (+342).