Mortality in Portugal has been above normal for almost a month in a row – and several contexts could make things worse in the near future.
Portugal registered the so-called excess mortality for several weeks in a row, for practically a month in a row.
The accounts presented by , based on figures from the Directorate-General for Health and the Death Certificate Information System (SICO), show that this trend began on the day December 10th. And it only ended this Monday, January 5th.
There is persistently above-normal mortality on a daily basis. More than 400 deaths per day, a peak of more than 500 deaths.
There were three days that stood out. All after Christmas: December 27th (488 deaths), December 30th (487) and January 2nd (more than 500).
I.e, just these three daystogether, around 1,500 people died in Portugal.
There are excess mortality rates greater than 37% compared to expectations – there is always a baseline, a value considered normal, looking at the history of mortality in identical periods in other years.
Comparing only with 2024/25, there was daily a higher number of deaths.
These are numbers that must be analyzed with “some calm” because it is necessary to look at the global context, commented Bernardo Gomes, president of the National Association of Public Health Doctors (ANMSP).
Bernardo Gomes highlighted three reasons: age of people, the cold and that of gripe.
Furthermore, there are also problems at home to be highlighted, the energy poverty, poor thermal insulation.
In the coming weeks, the cold, the return to schools and respiratory infections could prolong or even accentuate this trend.
Last year 121,974 people died, 5 thousand more than in 2024.
