COVID-19 Was Responsible For 5% Of Lives Lost In Malta In 2020
Roughly 5% of deaths recorded in Malta and Gozo during 2020 involved people who were positive for COVID-19.
Earlier this week, responding to a parliamentary question, Health Minister Chris Fearne tabled figures for the number of deaths registered in Malta each year between 2015 and 2020.
According to the statistics, there were 4,084 deaths in 2020. According to the Health Ministry’s COVID-19 update for 31st December 2020, there were 219 deaths recorded up until that point, meaning that COVID-19 accounted for some 5% of all deaths.
In 2015, 3,443 deaths were registered, with 3,343 recorded the following year.
2017 and 2018 both saw 3,688 deaths recorded.
The largest increase was registered between 2019 and 2020, where the number of deaths increased by 396.
It is unclear whether the slightly higher increase can be attributed to the pandemic.
The number of foreign nationals living in Malta is known to have decreased last year as a result of the pandemic, however, meaning that the increase is likely greater if considered as a percentage of the total population.
The minister was also asked for the number of births registered in 2020, telling the House that 4,548 babies were welcomed into the world that year. 1,821 births were recorded between January and May this year.
Malta, like the rest of the world, is experiencing an increase in COVID-19 cases as winter has continued to set in, however, hospitalisations have remained low, mainly due to the country’s successful COVID-19 vaccination drive.
A new variant of concern – the omicron variant – has also been spreading fast across Europe as scientists scramble to find out how much of a threat the new virus poses to the global pandemic response.
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