The International Monetary Fund released a report in which it lists Albania on top of the list of COVID-19 deaths per capita in Europe.

Albanian President Ilir Meta has promptly reacted following the publication raising the alarm and calling on authorities to take the report seriously, as the average population age in the country is younger compared to Europe.

In a Facebook status, Meta appealed to the Technical Committee of Experts to review the pandemic handling strategy and called for more transparency.

Official stats in Albania, in regards to COVID-infections, count over 180,000 positive cases. However, according to a poll conducted by Euronews Albania and MRB, published on Thursday during the show Barometer, figures may be significantly higher, with estimates suggesting around 830,000.

Immunologist Dr. Genc Sulcebe pointed to another method that could get us to a more realistic COVID-19 death count.

“The most comprehensive method would be looking at excess deaths, by comparing the period during the pandemic and after it. For example, we can analyze the past five years and settle on an average of, let’s say 22,000 deaths, and if in 2020, there were 25,000 deaths, then the remaining 3,000 could be attributed to COVID,” – argued the doctor.