TIRANA – Some 200 citizens were tested and 8 cases were confirmed positive during the last 24 hours bringing to 989 the total number of the infected people in Albania since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic on March 9 this year, but a warning was made by an official of the Institute of Public Health (ISHP) of a possible plummeting of the cases due to the last days’ anti-government protests in Tirana.
“For more than three weeks no coronavirus deaths have been reported and 79% of those affected have recovered,” said Rovena Daja from the Institute of Public Health. “The geographical distribution of the 8 new cases is as follows: 5 in Tirana, 2 in Durres and 1 in Kruja, which are contacts of previous positive cases. Six patients have recovered in the last day.”
There are currently 175 active people in Albania with COVID-19, mainly in Tirana, Durres, Kruja, Shkodra, which are still declared red areas in Albania. “Currently, 16 patients are hospitalized in the infectious service and only 5 of them are in intensive care,” said Daja.
But it is concerning a warning by the head of the Infectious Diseases Department at the ISHP, Silva Bino, who said after two weeks the impact of the protests of the Alliance for Theater, supported by the opposition after the theater’s demolition, will be felt.
“We have to wait for the next two weeks. This has nothing to do with politics but with people, they have to understand that the incubation period of the virus lasts up to 14 days, so we also have to wait for the results after two weeks to understand if these rallies will cause surge in coronavirus cases,” said Bino./argumentum.al