In total, 15,000 more people died last year than statistics would suggest, and most of these deaths are likely to be due to coronavirus, national statistics agency CBS said on Friday.

In particular, some 8,200 more people have died during the second wave than would have been expected, most of whom were over the age of 80, the CBS said.

The official coronavirus death rate only includes people who actually tested positive for the virus.

CBS statisticians will now examine death certificates and other records in an effort to get a more correct picture of the real coronavirus death toll.

The CBS said in October that just over 10,000 people had probably died of coronavirus up to the end of June, but the official RIVM figure was 6,182. In the final three months of 2020, a further 5,644 people officially died of coronavirus.

In the first week of 2021, some 4,000 people died in total, around 650 more than would have been expected, the CBS figures show.