Neue Monatsberichte der Todesursachenstatistik – mit Fokus auf dem Nachweis von COVID-19-Sterbefallzahlen

The coronavirus pandemic has shown the need for accurate and timely information on deaths that are related to the infectious disease. Information on causes of death in the whole of Germany is usually available from the causes of death statistics by mid-August of the following year. For this reason, the data of the SARS-CoV-2 statistics reported by the Robert Koch Institute have so far been used for comparisons with the general mortality figures. The Federal Statistical Office and the statistical offices of the Lander have developed monthly causes of death statistics containing provisional data, which are intended to provide a first overview of the mortality situation. This article explains the development of the provisional monthly reports based on the causes of death statistics and presents first selected monthly results on COVID-19 as a cause of death.