Excess deaths are related to total all-cause deaths. While subject to recording delays, this number avoids all uncertainty about what caused death. Often reported each week, total death can be converted to excess by subtracting a baseline of the total number of deaths expected. 
The baseline can be calculated as an average over earlier years or even simply be the totals for a different year. Deaths can be reported anywhere but a larger population makes numbers more certain. The total death is shown here for Europe (350 million) euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps.
Notice the winter flu peaks that are large in 2016/17 & 2017/18 but smaller in the next two years. There is also a large peak centered at Week 14 in 2020. This is due to COVID19. The excess death from COVID19 is the total number of deaths above the baseline for the entire period.
The total excess death in Europe in 2020 has not changed for 9 weeks. Still the number is large with 175,000 COVID season deaths since 1 March. This is equivalent to about 25 days of natural death (50,000 natural deaths/week in Europe). It is the burden of death of COVID19.
It turns out that reported COVID19 deaths in Europe did not stop when excess deaths did. The additional 16,600 reported deaths (9.4%) since 24 May are not excess deaths. Some of those who died of COVID may have been close to natural death & cannot die again.
Lockdown may have saved other lives? Additional lives may have been lost by missed hospital treatment. There is no way to know! This is why we count total all-cause deaths.
I hope this is helpful. Trying to explain the concepts clearly helped me understand them better.
I hope this is helpful. Trying to explain the concepts clearly helped me understand them better.
