The number of people dying of Covid-19 in the Netherlands may be up to 100% higher than the official figures, national statistics agency CBS said on Wednesday.

The CBS has introduced a new method to calculate the number of excess deaths – that is the number of deaths above and beyond the expected number.

The new figures cover the period March 9 to May 24 and show that between 8,593 and 11,691 more people died than had been expected according to a comparison with previous years.

The CBS says there is a 95% certainty that the real death rate will be between these two figures, and itself uses 10,164 as the actual total for the first 11 weeks of the crisis.

‘The results show that in addition to every 10 registered Covid-19 deaths, between five and 10 people died who were not registered as coronavirus victims,’ the CBS said.

During the same period, 5,900 people were officially registered as dying from coronavirus. The official figure, which only includes people who were tested for the virus, currently stands at 6,145.

In particular, the excess death rate is high at the beginning of the pandemic because testing was not widespread at the time, the CBS said.