The trend of mortality rates following hospitals downgrading and closures due to outbreak of COVID-19 in Fars province: A comparative cohort study.

Although the large number of deaths at the time of the pandemic are immediately due to COVID-19 infection, deaths due to a notable number of other causes have had a significant increase which, along with the specific trend of place and causes of death, shows that the downgrading and closure of hospitals have had a significant impact on overall population mortality.