The Delta variant is widely circulating in Albania and the municipalities where this variant has been identified so far are the following: Tirana, Peqin, Kavaja, Gjirokastra, Elbasan, Lezha, Vlora, Mat and Shkodra.
This was declared on Monday by the Deputy Health Minister, Mira Rakacolli speaking on behalf of the Technical Committee of Experts, which held a press conference following a routine meeting.
Rakacolli said that there has been a slight increase in the new cases with Covid-19 but she was pleased that there have been no fatalities during the last month. Currently, 9 unvaccinated patients are receiving treatment in the infectious hospital in Tirana. In the meantime, an appeal was repeated for the citizens to be alert because the delta variant is more transmissible. So, according to the experts, preventive measures should be observed. It has not been excluded that some new restriction measures could be restored if the situation gets worse.
But according to the senior official of the opposition Democratic Party (DP), Tritan Shehu the Albanian institutions have shown inability to identify the Delta variant in Albania, which brought about such a delay.
“It is again this incompetence that is putting Albanians in another catastrophe after 16,000 deaths so far. The situation should be considered very serious for the coming months,” he said in an interview on a local TV on Monday.
In Shehu’s view such a situation calls among others for the study of the level of immunization of the population because the country is still far from group immunization; to provide in quantity and quality only vaccines certified by EMA and FDA for the vaccination of the population over 12 years. According to him, Chinese vaccines have been defined as ineffective, especially for the Delta variant.
Shehu, a newly elected deputy and former health minister, said Albania should get prepared for a worsening situation in the coming months because it is a high-risk country.
“The health system must be prepared for this. Attention should be paid to hospitals at the national level, intensive therapies, primary care, equipment and instruction of staff for their protection because over 50 doctors have lost their lives so far,” said Shehu. / argumentum.al
