"As an example, an exceptional example, I would like to point out to the issue of excessive deaths, which can now be considered using the new indicators," he told a press conference on Thursday.
The Thursday data shows that 3,013 people with COVID-19 as their main cause of death have died in Lithuania so far. Once all deaths involving the COVID-19 diagnosis are added, the total death toll stands at 5,192.
And when all the remaining people who died of any non-external causes within 28 days following the COVID-19 diagnosis are added, the total rises to 5,840.
"That changed methodology of ours, it in fact expands that death notion and this way we can make a conclusion under that methodology that almost the same number of people have died directly from the COVID-19 disease and also died having been diagnosed with that disease," the minister said.
Jurate Petrauskiene, head of Statistics Lithuania, says the statistics service introduced three death definitions to provide more detailed rates.
Statistics Lithuania said earlier that 5,100, or 13 percent, more people died in Lithuania last year, from 2019. It was the biggest rise in the number of deaths since 1990.