TIRANA – As there was a reported drop in the number of new coronavirus cases to 33 on Monday as compared to 71 a day before, it is concerning the sharp rise of the patients being hospitalized in the infectious diseases hospital, according to information from local health authorities.
“There are still more patients hospitalized as a result of Covid-19. Currently, 82 patients are being treated at the Infectious Disease Ward in Tirana and 10 of them are in intensive care and 1 is intubated,” said the experts of the Institute of Public Health (ISHP), Eugena Tomini on Monday.
According to her, 1,159 out of the total number of infected have recovered until now, while 792 is the number of active coronavirus cases, mainly in Tirana, Shkodra and Durres. She informed that 239 tests were performed to those suspected of being infected with coronavirus of which 33 positive cases were confirmed, mainly new cases in the investigation process, as well as contacts of previously confirmed positive cases.
The geographical distribution of the last 24 hours is as follows: 23 in Tirana, 8 in Shkodra and 1 case in Pogradec and 1 in Kamza. The good news is that in the last 24 hours 25 citizens have recovered, bringing to 1159 the number of recovered since the beginning of the epidemic,” stressed Eugena Tomini, Institute of Public Health’s expert.
In the meantime the midnight of June 23 marks the end of the state of emergency in Albania due to COVID-19 pandemic. But it is not yet known what will happen after the termination of this emergency which was declared on March 24 this year when Albania counted 5 victims from COVID-19 and 123 infected. During these days the numbers of the infected people have varied from 33 to 83 persons.
Therefore there have been confusing declarations against the background of the unexpected high growth of the number of the infected people across the country with PM Edi Rama declaring on June 2 that the government did not plan to postpone the state of emergency any longer. However he was not clear when he spoke of a scenario that had to do only with the postponement of the emergency in some areas, or more specifically coastal towns. The latest statement made by him three days ago in which he blamed the ‘irresponsible’ Albanians for the negligence towards the ‘hidden enemy’ Rama mentioned a possibility of return to lockdown if the situation aggravates badly.
Anyway the 10-day rapid spread of the virus in the country was the cause for Montenegro to close the border with Albania which entered into force at midnight on Monday. But another new is that some air companies resumed their flights from and to Tirana on Monday./argumentum.al
