TIRANA, Jan. 7 – Albania has seen the highest number of daily infections since the start of the pandemic, authorities revealed on Friday, a day after another record was set on Thursday.
With 1,781 confirmed infections on Friday, and 1,648 on Thursday, the trend in the last 48 hours is of a rapid growth in infections continues, a more than five-fold increase in a week.
The high number is also due to increased testing, averaging more than double what Albanian authorities typically report, according to data from the Ministry of Health.
However, the positivity ratio in tests has also increased to 21 percent, something experts say shows widespread spread of the virus. The last week of December the positivity rate was 12.5 percent.
With the New Year festivities and a general lack of precaution, healthcare professionals worry about a massive Omicron variant wave coming this month.
Official data shows spread of the virus in all corners of the country, with Tirana continuing to be the major hot spot.
While the only positive news on Friday was that there were no fatalities, they have remained in the 3-5 daily range. Hospitalizations have also not increased rapidly, but typically there is a delayed effect, experts say.
Other than the nighttime curfew, few of the other regulations are being followed in terms of mask wearing indoors and not having crowds gather together both indoors and outdoors.
During the holiday season, many regulations were also ignored. Health experts had warned the holiday celebrations would lead to a major increase in infection numbers.
