Doctors call for “faster analysis” of Portugal’s excess deaths

With the number of excess deaths this year continuing the upward trend verified since the start of the pandemic, public health doctors are calling for “faster analysis” by the State’s DGS health authority. Questions persist over “the impact of the pandemic in the control of other diseases” – and the type of deaths involved. INE statistics institute logs 6,303 of the ‘excess deaths’ during the first 10 months of this year as due to Covid-19. This leaves 3,049 that have yet to be ‘understood’. Specialist in family medicine Rui Nogueira suggests the majority of excess deaths have occurred in people who were already chronically ill.