In a few days, Poland will join the group of a dozen or so countries in the world where the rate of deaths due to COVID-19 per million inhabitants exceeds 3,000.
Poland ranked 16th in the world in terms of the number of covid deaths
Published March 11, 2022 11:34
Fot. Getty Images/iStockphoto
The state on March 11 is 2999, and as experts predict, we will be recording three-digit deaths for at least two or three weeks. The highest rate of deaths due to COVID-19 is recorded in Peru (over 6,200), and in European countries - Bulgaria (over 5,200).
The seven-day average daily number of deaths per million inhabitants is currently 3.99 - and Poland is definitely not at the forefront of statistics. The situation is worse in the Balkan countries (Bulgaria - almost 6.5). In Hungary, the indicator is over 5.8. In Latvia - 7.5 and in Denmark - almost 9 (!). Denmark, one of the best vaccinated countries in Europe, abolished - at the height of the wave of Omicron infections - virtually all restrictions and the death rate from less than 3 began to virtually constantly climb, and after two months it tripled. In Poland, the number of deaths was already falling in mid-January, but still, compared to most Western European countries, it remains at a relatively high level.
It should also be remembered that Poland, compared to other countries, conducts very few tests - the seven-day average at the moment is 1.75 tests per 1,000 inhabitants (at the peak of the fifth wave it was slightly more than 4 tests). We still maintain a very high percentage of positive tests (over 17.5 percent). In terms of the number of tests per million inhabitants, we have been ranked 96th in the world since the beginning of the pandemic. Experts emphasize that due to the underestimation of the number of deaths in the second and third waves of COVID-19, we should multiply their official number (over 112,000) by at least 1.5-1.8.
At the moment, the great unknown is contamination among refugees - although Ukrainian citizens can test themselves for free, there are no systemic solutions (for example, obligatory antigen tests in places where there are hundreds or thousands of them, such as accommodation). This, experts say, even if there is no risk of another wave breaking out, could keep infection levels relatively high, but also delay the death tide for many weeks.
Data: ourworldindata.org, worldometers.info
