In the first seven months of 2023 almost 2,000 people died from coronavirus in the Netherlands, national statistics agency CBS said on Monday.

The CBS said in April that 48,000 people had died of coronavirus between the start of the pandemic and the end of 2022. The new figures take the total death toll to 50,000 by the end of July.

Some 7,000 more people died in the first seven months of the year than would have been expected, the CBS said.

However, the number of people dying from coronavirus makes up smaller percentage of the unexpected deaths than in 2022. The figure is also half that of 2021, when the pandemic was at its height.

At the same time, the number of people dying from breathing problems such as pneumonia and COPD, and of dementia, is going up. There was also an increase in the number of deaths relating to a fall.

Women are most likely to die from dementia, strokes or heart failure and lung cancer, while lung cancer, dementia and coronary heart disease are the most common causes of death among men, the CBS said.