TIRANA – When Albanians have been seized by an alarming distress due to the unchecked spread of the deadly coronavirus taking lives and infecting hundreds of people every day, the Health Minister, Ogerta Manastirliu is brave enough to speak to the public on her anti-C19 plans for coming autumn-winter seasons.
Some 119 new cases and 2 fatalities were announced on Monday right after the minister’s articulation when the death toll passed the benchmark of 300 victims most of whom passed away in July and August.
But in the eyes of the Minister everything is okay, rather better than in other regional countries.
“If we look at the situation of the last two weeks, Albania is among the countries with the lowest number of positive cases and fatalities in the region, but these are balances that should not be made in the middle of the war,” she said in a press conference.
In the presentation of the autumn-winter plan the Health Minister spoke of some elements for the increase of surveillance, testing, tracking and laboratory capacities.
Starting in September, the staff of epidemiologists and field epidemiologists will increase by 30%, according to her. Manastirliu said the Albanian government had decided to increase funding to carry out free vaccination of all vulnerable groups several times. Part of the autumn-winter strategy is the multiplication of free flu vaccines to cover at-risk groups like elderly, teachers, children 2-5 years old, etc, she said.
In the meantime the opposition Democratic Party (DP) continued its accusations against the government’s handling of the fight towards the disease with a senior official of it asking SPAK to carry out a probe.
Bardh Spahiu, a former DP lawmaker, accused the government of mismanagement of the pandemic following the practice of hiding the reality of the real number of fatalities. “It has even hidden the number of victims from the disease,” said Spahiu, a doctor by profession. According to him, such behavior should be investigated for bringing to justice those responsible for people’s lives. /argumentum.al
