Economy 27 April 2021, 12:50pm

Hungary jumps ahead of last microstate in COVID-19 deaths per 1M people

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COVID-19 became the most lethal in the world in Hungary last week, but - in accordance with international methodology - we omitted microstates from that ranking. By today, Hungary has beaten even Gibraltar in terms of COVID-19 deaths per one million population.

koronavírus járvány halálozás kórház egészségügy

Hungary's advance to the top position in this ranking may be surprising in light of the retreating pandemic, but it was expected. Although the number of new daily confirmed COVID-19 cases has been decreasing, the number of coronavirus-related deaths will start to show this change only with weeks of delay.

Meanwhile, testing remains subdued. (The ranking below includes the same countries as the table above.)

More than 1,400 Hungarians died of coronavirus in the last 7 days, but it still marks a 15% drop over the preceding week.

The 'third wave' in the pandemic has been raging so vehemently in Hungary that in terms of COVID-19 per one million population the country's lead over other nations has grown even further over the past week.

Case fatality puts Hungary among the worst in the world too, with a 3.47% Case Fatality Rate (CFR), which is the ratio between confirmed deaths and confirmed cases.

Hungary’s top position in terms of COVID-19 deaths per population has to do with various factors:

the general health status of the Hungarian population
the government responding to epidemiological developments with ever greater delay and with ever lighter restrictions
methodological factors

With Hungary making headlines again the government started to argue that it's not the number of deaths per population that matters rather than excess mortality (the difference between deaths during the pandemic and 'peacetime' years, generally the average of the preceding five years).

However, these statistics do not include the 'third wave' of the pandemic, as there are no reliable data for that period yet. But knowing that the pandemic was (and still is) the most devastating in Hungary in that very period, these comparisons cannot show the real picture.

If you want to see the real situation, you need statistics and charts like the ones above, and like the ones included in the following article:

Meanwhile, Hungary continues to ease curbs. Stores were allowed to re-open, the curfew keeps getting shorter, nurseries and primary schools (1st-4th grades) were re-opened on 19 April, followed by restaurant terraces on Saturday, and more restrictions will be loosened likely this week.