Vlora and Tirana are the two counties that recorded the biggest losses in people's lives in 2021.
According to INSTAT data, fatalities in Vlora were 50.3% higher in 2021, compared to the average of 2016-2019, when we had a normal situation.
In Vlora, a total of 2,455 people died in 2021, from about 1,600 in the average of four years before the pandemic. This deterioration came as in 2020 the people of Vlonia had resisted the pandemic, with deaths increasing by 12.8%, among the lowest in the country.
After Vlora, it is the capital of the country that has had the biggest losses from the pandemic. Mortality in Tirana continued to be high for the second year in a row, culminating in an increase of 49.8% in 2021 compared to the 2016-2019 average, while in 2020 the losses were high (+36.4% compared to the 2016-2019 average). XNUMX).
About 7800 people lost their lives in the capital, out of 5200 in a normal year without a pandemic. Doctors explain that the high number of fatalities in Tirana is the main reason for the high population density compared to other cities, favoring the greater spread of the virus. In the big urban centers where the gatherings are even higher, the infections spread more and as a result the fatalities are also greater. Especially during the winter of 2021 there was a high prevalence in family homes.
After Tirana, Fieri is ranked, with a 48.5% increase in fatalities (compared to the 2016-2019 average), followed by Berat with 41.1% and Durrës with 39.5%.
Lezha and Shkodra experienced the strongest wave of the pandemic in 2020, and in 2021 they faced additional mortality increases, respectively by 36.5% and 36.4%.
Gjirokastra also recorded a strong increase in fatalities, compared to the first pandemic year (+33.5%, from 17% in 2020).
On average, deaths in the country increased by 40% in 2021 compared to the average before the pandemic, from 26.4% which was the additional mortality in 2020. all counties, with the exception of Kukës, saw a higher increase in additional deaths in 2021, compared to the first year of the pandemic.
The district of Kukës turns out to have passed the pandemic more easily, with an increase in fatalities in 2021 by 13.2%, much lower than the regional average, this is explained according to doctors by the young age of the population and the low density due to immigration high.
In relation to the population, 10.8 deaths per 1,000 inhabitants were recorded in the country, from 7.6 which was this indicator for the average period 2016-2019, according to INSTAT data, processed by Monitor. The indicator worsened not only due to the consequences of the pandemic, but also the total reduction of the country's population. According to INSTAT, in 2021, the population in the country was about 1.1% lower than before the pandemic started (or about 32 thousand people less).
In 2021, for the first time in almost a century, deaths outnumbered births.
The record is held by Gjirokastra with 18 deaths per 1,000 inhabitants, but this is a county that even in normal years has a higher mortality due to the elderly population. The second was Berat (14.1) and the third was Korça.
Tirana, although without a high increase in deaths from the pandemic, is the penultimate in relation to the population, because it is one of the few counties that still has an increase in the number of residents (positive internal migration).
Again, Kukësi is ranked as the district with the least loss of life in relation to the population (8.2).
Almost 15 thousand additional deaths since the beginning of the pandemic
Since April 2020, when the wave of the pandemic began to have its first effects in Albania until the end of 2021, there have been about 14.6 thousand additional deaths in the country compared to the average of the corresponding periods 2016-2019.
For the entire year 2021, the country recorded a total of about 30.6 thousand (30,580) deaths, marking the highest record level ever reached in the country's history. This is the second year in a row that fatalities in the country are high. In the first year of the pandemic, in 2020, a total of 27.6 thousand deaths were registered, from 21.8 thousand which was the average for the period 2016-2019.
Compared to the average of 2016-2019, when it was a normal period, deaths in 2021 have increased by 40%. Even in 2020, the additional mortality compared to the 2016-2019 average increased by about 26%.
NOTE: This material is the intellectual property of Monitor
