Background: If patients across the spectrum of illness and injury avoid seeking hospital care out of concerns about acquiring COVID-19, mortality rates from ailments other than COVID-19 may increase.

Aims and objectives: This study estimated the impact of SARS-CoV-2 in excess mortality from any cause during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Korea.

Methods: The numbers of total deaths and COVID-19?related deaths were counted from January 2020 through May 2022, using public data from the Korean Statistical Information Service(KOSIS) of Statistics Korea.

Results: Excess mortality was observed nationwide in March, August, October, November, and December 2020; January, March, July, and August 2021; and October 2021 through May 2022, which was consistent with the epidemic waves in the country.

Conclusions: In this study, we found significant excess mortality occurred at the national level after 2021, which means there was an indirect impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on all-cause mortality aside from the direct effect of deaths from COVID-19.