The alleged under-reporting of Covid-19 deaths has been raised as an issue in many countries, prompting questions about how accurate Irish mortality figures are. Ireland currently ranks 12th in Europe for Covid-19 deaths per million of population, just below Sweden. There are two main sets of issues relating to the possible under-reporting of Covid-19 deaths. Residential locationsIn residential locations, this happens as a consequence of the investigation by public health officials of local outbreaks of the disease. The numbers don’t add up because some nursing home patients were transferred to hospital before dying and so may have been counted in both nursing home and hospital categories.

Source: The Irish Times April 16, 2020 00:11 UTC