Due to the pandemic, 6 more deaths per 100,000 people... K-Quarantine ranks 6th in OECD

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] South Korea has been shown to have managed the COVID-19 pandemic better than most other advanced countries.

According to an analysis of the World Health Organization (WHO) COVID-19 excess mortality report on the 7th, South Korea's estimated excess deaths for 2020-2021 were 6,288. This ranks 79th smallest among the 194 countries analyzed by the WHO in terms of absolute scale.

Excess deaths refer to the number of deaths exceeding what would have been expected had COVID-19 not occurred. This includes not only deaths directly caused by COVID-19 but also those indirectly caused by the burden on health and medical systems.

During this period, the number of deaths officially attributed to COVID-19 infection in South Korea was 5,563.

The excess deaths exceed this by 725. This estimate reflects those who were omitted from statistics or died due to the ripple effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The scale of excess deaths is evaluated as an indicator of both a country's ability to suppress infectious disease spread and the stability of its healthcare system. A smaller relative scale of excess deaths generally indicates better management of the infectious disease outbreak.

There were many countries with fewer excess deaths than South Korea. However, among these countries, only two had larger populations than South Korea: Japan (-2,884 deaths; population 130 million) and Vietnam (-1,138 deaths; population 98 million).

When considering excess deaths per 100,000 people, which accounts for population size, South Korea ranked among the top within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), often referred to as the "club of advanced countries."

Only five OECD member countries had lower excess death rates than South Korea: Australia (-28), New Zealand (-28), Japan (-8), Iceland (-2), and Norway (-1). When quarantine measures are very strict, suppressing not only COVID-19 but also other causes of death such as influenza and traffic accidents, excess deaths can appear as negative numbers (-).

Many advanced countries such as the United States (140 per 100,000), Italy (133), Germany (116), the United Kingdom (109), and France (63) recorded poor results.

The WHO report identified India as the country with the highest number of excess deaths, with 4.74 million deaths (107 per 100,000 people).