[imagesource: Rodger Bosch/AFP]

One can’t really say that things are back to normal after the harrowing years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It might feel like we’ve emerged at the other end, but the whole planet is still sort of reeling – economically and socially – and the disease is still spreading and evolving and killing people all over the world.

We can, however, look back at the height of the crisis – the years 2o20 and 2021, which we’d all honestly rather forget – and thank the high heavens and all the gods that we are still here and getting by. If you are reading this, that’s you. Don’t stop washing your hands.

A new Lancet study has revealed how many South Africans died during those gruelling COVID-19 years, noting that generally, the average life expectancy of people across the world dropped by 1.6 years in the first two years of the pandemic.

The study reported that the total number of deaths in South Africa for 2021 was 733,000 (that’s 38.4 deaths per 1,000 people), with 130,000 of those deaths attributed to COVID-19.

The excess mortality rate due to COVID-19 for the years 2020-21 was 3.12 deaths per 1,000 people, underscoring the additional deaths caused by the pandemic compared to the expected mortality rate.

In 2021, the probability of under-five mortality was 0.28%, indicating there was a likelihood of death before reaching the age of five, while the probability of death between ages 15 and 59 years stood at 0.44%, reflecting mortality rates during the prime years of adulthood.

Overall, the study suggests global mortality rates had been steadily falling for the 70 years before COVID-19 infections began to spread, but then that changed when global mortality jumped from 2019 to 2021, rising 22% in males over age 15, and 17% for women.

Between 1950 and 2021, global life expectancy at birth increased by 22.7 years overall (in other words, people were expected to live to 71.7 years instead of 49). That number was impacted by a 1.6-year drop worldwide between 2019 and 2020.

Out of the 31 million global deaths in 2020 and 2021, 12.3% of this number can be attributed to COVID-19, according to Lancet. This was either through direct infection or social, economic or behavioural changes associated with the pandemic.

Of the 204 countries and territories studied by Lancet, only 32 countries saw an increase in expected life expectancy between 2019 and 2021.

[source:iol]