The latest delivery this Friday, April 10 of the weekly mortality figures published by INSEE is final: the Grand-Est and Ile-de-France regions remain the most fatally affected by Covid-19 today. But this week's statistics provide several highly anticipated details, which confirm what has already been empirically observed. On the one hand, the number of deaths in men is increasing sharply than in women, on the other hand the Ehpad are the places of death where mortality increased the most in March, if we compare it to the same month of 2019. Finally, the most exposed age category is that of the 75-84 years, and not that of the 85 years and more.
Valérie Roux, head of the demography department at the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee), details these new mortality figures, exceptionally published every seven days for three weeks.
For the first time since you started working on the epidemic, you have managed to use the mortality data for the whole of March according to the place of death. What comes out of it?
VALÉRIE ROUX. It appears, at the national level, that deaths in retirement homes, or Ehpad (Editor's note: accommodation establishments for dependent elderly people) increased by 12% that month compared to 2019. It is in Ile- de-France and in the Grand-Est that this increase is really striking, including for the other places of death. In Ile-de-France, the increase in deaths in March 2020 was 72% in nursing homes compared to 2019, 34% in hospitals and clinics, 44% for deaths at home. In the Grand-Est, there are 49% more deaths in nursing homes, 39% more in hospitals, 32% at home. The largest departmental increase should be noted in Haut-Rhin: 232% more deaths in nursing homes, 149% in Hauts-de-Seine, 119% in Paris.
The medical profession has noticed that men seem to be more affected than women. Do you confirm it?
Yes. We note a greater increase in deaths among men than among women. Here again, it is the regional data that make it possible to better determine it. In Ile-de-France, this excess mortality is very clear: 48% among men, 31% among women. And at the departmental level, we see very high figures: in Seine-Saint-Denis, for example, there is an increase of 73% for men, 49% for women. In the Hauts-de-Seine too, with 64% and 48% respectively.
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Which age group is most affected?
Very clearly, that of people aged 75 to 84. They pay a heavier price than the bracket below (65-74 years) and even that above (those over 85 years). Nationally, this segment has increased by 16%. In Ile-de-France, this figure rises to 50%, and in Seine-Saint-Denis to 95%.
You now have the number of deaths in France for the entire month of March. What do they show compared to those of 2019?
There were 57,541 deaths in France in March in 2020, an increase of 10% compared to 2019. What is striking is to look at the regional level, where we see that two regions, the Grand- East and Ile-de-France are experiencing really significant increases: 39% more compared to last year. Within these territories, departments are experiencing impressive increases: the Haut-Rhin, with 128% increase, the Seine-Saint-Denis with 62% or the Hauts-de-Seine with 56% . However, looking more closely, we observe in the Great East a slowdown in the increase in deaths over the week which runs from March 28 to April 3. This slowdown, however, is not yet really observed on these dates in Ile-de-France.