SUPER MORTALITY Public Health France notes that this is the “largest toll since 2003”, the year of the deadliest heat wave with 15,000 deaths
A cemetery (illustration). — AFP
The summer of 2022 has been particularly deadly. The summer period has indeed been marked by an excess of more than 10,000 deaths in France, partly linked to high temperatures, but also to Covid-19, according to an estimate published Monday evening by the health authorities . This figure is in line with a previous, provisional estimate from INSEE: more than 11,000 additional deaths from June 1 to August 22 compared to the previous figure. the same period in 2019, so before the start of the pandemic.
Health calculation Public France (SpF) is based on the number of deaths observed compared to the expected one. That is to say compared to to the previous five summers, with a greater weight in recent years to adjust in particular with demographic aging.
Heat wave and Covid-19 are bad news household
During the second summer the hottest since 1900, there were 10,420 excess deaths (+6.1%) between June 1 and September 15. Some of these deaths are concentrated in the three heat wave episodes: 2,816 recorded over these periods alone. This is the “highest death toll since 2003”, the year of the deadliest heat wave (15,000 dead), Health France in a bulletin Heat and health.
Part of the excess mortality is “presumably due to exposure to; intense heat,” below “heat wave alert thresholds”. We will have to wait until early 2023 to have an estimate of its magnitude. The Covid-19, rebounding this summer, also comes into play. But “there is an interaction between these two inseparable phenomena,”sums up Guillaume Boulanger, head of the unit. “Quality” living and working environments and health populations” of SpF.
Ages 75+ have been the most affected during the three heat wave episodes: one in six excess deaths concerned them (2,272 excess deaths, +20.2%) . During these periods, 894 deaths linked to Covid-19 were also recorded. counted, mainly for French people aged 70 and over.