The Slovenia Times

Record daily number of Covid-19 deaths reported as 61 die

Health & Medicine

Ljubljana - A record daily number of Covid-19 deaths in Slovenia has been reported for Thursday as 61 patients died. 1,784 new coronavirus infections were detected in 6,853 tests for a positivity rate of 26.3%, which is slightly lower than the day before.

A total of 1,284 persons were in hospital yesterday for Covid-19, as 123 patients were admitted and 86 were discharged from hospital, government spokesman Jelko Kacin tweeted on Friday.

Intensive care was being provided to 197 patients, which is one fewer than on Wednesday.

The average number of new infections in the past seven days per 100,000 residents currently stands at 1,487.

Meanwhile, the rolling 14-day average per 100,000 residents is at 968, according to national tracker Covid-19 Sledilnik.

The data for Thursday show that none of the requirements for easing restrictions as set out in the government's five-tier strategy had been met, Kacin said.

Slovenia will start relaxing the restrictions when the seven-day average of daily infections is under 1,350 infections and there are fewer than 1,200 Covid-19 patients in hospital.

With the record daily number of deaths on Thursday, the total death toll has climbed to 1,653.

According to some global tracking sites, Slovenia currently has the highest Covid-19 mortality rate in the world.

The New York Times tracker showed Slovenia today as the worst performer in the world, with a daily average of 2.4 Covid deaths per 100,000 people over the last seven days, ahead of Bulgaria (2) and Hungary (1.6).

The figures are the same in the Our World in Data tracker, just calculated as deaths per million inhabitants.

Moreover, since mid-October Slovenia has been recording a large share of excess deaths, the national tracker data show.

Taking into account the average of the past five years, the week between 9 and 15 November saw an increase by 81%. The number of Covid-19-related deaths also surged during that period.

A total of 730 persons died that week, which compares to 416 in the same period in 2019 and 404 in 2018.

During the first epidemic wave in spring, excess mortality did not fluctuate significantly compared to the five-year average, however in the second wave, the excess death figure has been rising since 12 October.

The week that followed that day saw an increase by 16% and the upward trend only accelerated in the following weeks.

The last week that has been so far analysed is the period between 16 and 22 November when excess mortality increased by 74%.

The data indicate that the excess death growth correlates with the increasing number of Covid-19 deaths. The latter figure is somewhat lower than the first though.

The tracker notes that not all Covid-19 deaths have already been registered as such. Moreover, a part of the excess death share could be deaths caused by the ramifications of anti-coronavirus measures, for example, restricted access to health services.

Covid-19 Sledilnik has also said that more detailed assessments will be possible long after the second wave ends and when there will be more comprehensive data.

However, current excess mortality in Slovenia is similar to the figures in those countries that were worst off in the first wave, the tracker warned.

Slovenia has so far recorded 81,349 cases, including 20,288 which are currently active, according to the national tracker data.

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