Changes in all-cause and cause-specific excess mortality before and after the Omicron outbreak of COVID-19 in Hong Kong.

ABSTRACT:

Background

While coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) deaths were generally underestimated in many countries, Hong Kong may show a different trend of excess mortality due to stringent measures, especially for deaths related to respiratory diseases. Nevertheless, the Omicron outbreak in Hong Kong evolved into a territory-wide transmission, similar to other settings such as Singapore, South Korea, and recently, mainland China. We hypothesized that the excess mortality would differ substantially before and after the Omicron outbreak.

Methods

We conducted a time-series analysis of daily deaths stratified by age, reported causes, and epidemic wave. We determined the excess mortality from the difference between observed and expected mortality from 23 January 2020 to 1 June 2022 by fitting

SUBMITTER: Chong KC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10143112 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature