'Most COVID-19 deaths': Slovakia coronavirus deaths surge rapidly due to UK variant

Despite a stringent lockdown, Slovakia on Tuesday witnessed a steep surge in the COVID-19 fatalities and increased hospitalizations due to the spread of more virulent and deadlier UK variant of coronavirus. Becoming the country with the most COVID-19 deaths in the world, Slovakia on February 15 recorded an alarming 1.68 deaths per 100,000 in its 7 day-average fatalities per single day. Portugal, meanwhile, dipped to second with the most death toll, an average of 1.48 fatality per 100,000 people. According to data registered by Johns Hopkins University, Slovakia’s death toll spiked from 1.68 deaths per 100,000 people to 1.78 deaths per 100,000 people this week. 

“The most significant factor that has prevented coronavirus cases from falling in Slovakia is a high occurrence of the variant that was found in Britain,” Marek Majdan, a Slovakian epidemiologist, told The Associated Press.

UK’s coronavirus mutant, which the British health minister Matt Hancock said has a much higher doubling rate, has been detected in more than 74 percent in the Central European nation, Slovakia Prime Minister Igor Matovic told a conference earlier. Furthermore, the latest scientific research indicated that the UK variant carried a higher mortality rate than the earlier variant SARS-CoV-2, with a fatality rate roughly 35 percent higher. “Among male patients ages 55-69, around 1-in-180 died after becoming infected with older versions of the virus. With the new variant "that's gone up to around 1-in-140,” Nicholas Davies of the London School of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene said in a study published in medRxiv. 

Read: London To Move To Highest Alert As New Coronavirus Variant Identified In UK

Read: UK Health Secretary On Vaccines And Virus Variants

Situation 'grim'

Slovakia Health Minister, Marek Krajci, meanwhile,  called deaths from UK variant at “an unbelievable high number.” “The lockdown, which worked effectively against the original virus, isn’t as effective against the more infectious variant,” Majdan told AP. In the majority of the Slovakian counties, the situation was considered grim, with hospitalizations soaring, and the government had to scrap the reopening of the schools. As many as 111 people died in Slovakia of COVID-19 as of this week, while overall, the country’s death toll stood at 3,800 this year. According to the projections by the Slovakia health officials, by June, the country has put the death toll to stand between 9,000 and 11,000. In its efforts to ramp the vaccination campaign, Slovakia inoculated 3,872 COVID-19 patients this week, as health minister Majdan called vaccination “key to improving the situation.” 

Read: UK Health Secretary On New Coronavirus Variant

Read: UK's Health Minister Warns That Vaccines May Work Less Well On Covid-19 Variants