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TIRANA – Due to the spread of COVID-19 virus across Albania the number of infections and fatalities have been registering the highest quotas over the last 10 days.
Flutura Beqo, an expert at the Ministry of Health, announced 53 new cases and a fatality, a 70-year-old woman from Durrës, in the past 24 hours, on Saturday.
According to Beqo, 320 tests were made on suspected cases of COVID-19 during the last 24 hours of which 53 cases turned out to be positive, mainly new cases and contacts of previously confirmed cases.
Beqo said that the ‘good news’ is that 12 patients have recovered in the past 24 hours, bringing the number of cured cases to 1,126 since the outbreak of the epidemic on March 9 this year.
As the expert said Tirana is on top of the infections’ list with 26 infected cases followed by Shkodra (6), Kruja (5), and Vlora (4). An infection was discovered in the town of Përmet adding to the list of infected areas. “There are currently 722 active cases of COVID-19 in Albania,” said Beqo, a figure sufficiently high making Montenegro to ban travelling of Albanians to that neighboring country.
There were claims that even Greece could close the border with Albania but a diplomatic source told argumentum.al on condition of anonymity that there is no likelihood for Athens to take such a measure.
In the meantime the number of hospitalized persons is increasing, amounting to 63 on Saturday with 7 in intensive therapy and 2 intubated. In face of the situation it seems that nothing has remained to local authorities but to repeat calls for self distancing and personal hygiene. There is no positive response by citizens to wear face marks, something which is striking in Tirana where a quick look reveals that very few people wear them.
What has compromised the situation is the fact that health centers in Tirana, including QSUT, have become hotpots of the virus spreading it in the Capital and other areas of the country. A medical expert said if that chain is not broken Albania risks to undergo harder times in the next weeks.
In the meantime it is surprising that contrary to the two and a half month-lockdown when PM Edi Rama spoke many times in a day on the threats of the ‘hidden enemy’ now as the situation has got worse he has ‘disappeared’. The latest appearance in public social media was when he announced that two artist, the brothers Budina, activists against the demolition of the National Theater, were infected with COVID-19. This has gained the denouncement of Budina brothers who will reportedly file charges against Rama for violating ‘health privacy’ as well as of the public society and opposition, which hold responsible the government head for the frightful spread of the pandemic. They are unanimous that violation of the privacy, confidentiality, and security of health information by anyone, let alone a senior government official, is punishable. /argumentum.al
