Albania ranks fourth in the world for the level of real deaths from Covid-19 in relation to the population, after Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Bulgaria.
The data was published by Health Data, an American institute for health assessment. According to the report, Albania had a total of 529 deaths per 100 thousand inhabitants, for the period March 2020 to May 2021, ranking fourth among the 20 countries with the highest real deaths from Covid-19.
After Albania comes Mexico (478 deaths per 100 thousand inhabitants), followed by North Macedonia (482), Belarus (472), Romania (465), Kazakhstan (459), Peru (447).
According to the report, Albania has the total deaths from Covid-19 about 6 times more than the official declarations, ranking again among the countries that have the lowest rate of official declarations in relation to the total deaths, after Belarus and Azerbaijan. In North Macedonia, the ratio is 2, while in Montenegro it is 1.4.
Health Data estimates that globally, Covid-19 has caused 6.9 million deaths, or twice as many as officially stated so far. The estimate is based on measuring additional deaths during pandemic weeks compared to what would be expected based on the trends and seasonality of previous years. However, the report says, the level of additional deaths is not equal to the total number of COVID-19 deaths. Excessive mortality is affected by six factors:
a) the overall death rate from COVID-19, that is, all deaths related directly to COVID-19 infection; b) increased mortality due to delay of necessary health care during the pandemic; c) increased mortality due to increased mental health disorders including depression, increased alcohol use and increased opioid use; d) reduction of mortality due to reduction of injuries as a result of limited movement; e) reductions in mortality due to reduced transmission of other viruses, mainly influenza, respiratory virus and measles; and f) reductions in chronic mortality, such as cardiovascular disease and chronic respiratory disease, that occur when weak individuals who would have died from these conditions died faster as a result of COVID-19.
"To accurately assess the total mortality of COVID-19, we need to consider all six of these drivers of mortality change that have occurred since the onset of the pandemic."
In absolute value, the countries with the highest death rate are the US, with 912 thousand, followed by India with 736.8 thousand, Mexico with 621.9 thousand, Brazil with 616.9 thousand, and Russia with 607.6 thousand.