Albanian President Ilir Meta called for urgent intervention after a report published by the International Monetary Fund showed Albania had the highest mortality in Europe in 2020 in rapport with the average of the period 2015-2019.

According to European Regional Overview of October 2021, in 2020 additional deaths in Albania were over 20% higher than the 2015-2019 average, the highest in Europe, followed by Northern Macedonia (about 18%) and Kosovo (about 17%).

President Meta urged the Technical Committee of Experts and health authorities to analyze the data responsible and review all the protocols, preventive measure and pandemic treatment with transparence and cooperation with the citizens.

“The ranking of Albania as the country with the highest Covid-19-related mortality in Europe  according to the IMF is an alarming fact, which must be taken very seriously, especially due to the fact that our country is still with a younger average age of the population compared to other European countries”, Meta wrote on his Facebook page.

“I urge the Technical Committee of Experts and the authorities to responsibly analyze this data, review all protocols, prevention measures, and the pandemic treatment in a transparent and cooperative way with the citizens.

Weaknesses must be identified and eliminated and urgent intervention is needed to prevent this high rate of loss of lives”.