Malta’s COVID-19 mortality rate continues to be among the lowest in Europe despite a spike in the number of people dying with the virus in recent weeks.
Data compiled by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) shows that, by last Friday, Malta’s mortality rate – the percentage of deaths in relation to the total number of positive cases detected – was still below one per cent.
The ECDC data does not include the two deaths registered over the weekend.
According to the EU health agency, Malta’s rate is the seventh-lowest in Europe, at 0.9 per cent. The remaining countries all have mortality rates higher than one per cent.
As of last Friday, Italy still had the highest mortality rate since the pandemic hit the peninsula.
Earlier in the year, the world watched in devastation as the country grappled with thousands of deaths daily. Italy’s mortality rate now stands at 7.6 per cent.
But, as the months progressed, other countries also registered surges in numbers, Sweden and the UK both registered high mortality rate. They now have a mortality rate of 5.4 per cent, according to the ECDC.
Sweden’s lax approach to the virus outbreak has made international headlines, with questions over the effectiveness of the country’s attitude being raised.
In the UK, the government was forced to introduce ‘local lockdowns’ to control the spread as the numbers spiked at the end of summer.
Death toll soars
Fifty-three patients have died while infected with the virus as of yesterday morning.
The first death was registered on April 8, a month after the first COVID-19 cases were detected. By June 4, nine people had died of the virus, a figure that remained unchanged for weeks. The 10th COVID-19 death was confirmed over two months later, on August 21.
But the situation soon took a drastic turn for the worse and, in just two months, more than 40 people died while positive for COVID-19.
The situation was compounded by outbreaks in homes for the elderly that resulted in more vulnerable people being exposed to the virus.