TIRANA – In his first appearance for this fourth week of the formal outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic in Albania on Monday the Prime Minister, Edi Rama touched upon some issues which concern the daily life of the people starting with the movement in the situation of the lockdown. He said that it is expected to have changes to the measures that are still in force and replace them with relaxed measures in terms of the movement of citizens this week.
“The relaxation of restrictions which we intend to make this week have to do with permission of vehicles for employees of businesses allowed to work, but it is not permitted to take family members. If the person in question is caught with family, he will be fined, the driving license will be revoked, the vehicle will be seized, and he will be released,” Rama said, warning that who gets a pensioner in his car will be jailed for several years.
In addition Rama announced that the shopping timeframe will be prolonged to 90 minutes instead of one hour now and people can go shopping by car.
Another long expected measure was the announcement that businesses which are now allowed to work have the opportunity to hire their employees.
In addition Rama said that the first 9,500 ‘war’ salaries had been approved for small businesses that have closed down the activity. At the end of the week over 60,000 ‘war’ salaries will be approved.
Rigid lockdown avoided projected 286 dead by Covid in last 3 weeks
If urgent restrictions measures had not been taken, coronavirus epidemic would have taken the lives of 286 citizens and infect about 3000 people across Albania, said PM Rama in his Monday’s communication through FB with the people.
“Today we would have 3008 infected persons according to the projection on the maximum level, 600 on the average, but today we have fewer; we have about 300 infected persons. This is thanks to the measures we have taken. If we had not taken action, we would have 286 dead today, but currently we have only 21 fatalities.”
“If we continue like this, we will end the war with our heads up,” stressed the Prime Minister, who, however, cautioned that Albania is still in the middle of the war.
Rama sees Berisha’s aim to re-destroy Albania
The government head did not spare the opposition particularly DP’s veteran leader Sali Berisha, a harsh criticizer of Rama, in the context of the issue of the blocked people at no man’s land at the Albanian-Greek border.
Berisha and opposition have called for the opening of the borders for the trapped Albanians.
Rama’s answer was that who behaves as a patriot and a mourner for this situation aims at inciting catastrophe. “It is not a secret the well known fact that Sali Berisha has only one aim: to re-destroy Albania in any way for his accounts,” Rama said, pointing the finger at Berisha, a former president, who was overthrown in the bloody turmoil of 1997 when a dozen of pyramid schemes collapsed due to which thousands upon thousands of Albanians lost their life savings and the country was put on fire.
However, the PM made an invitation to the current DP head Basha to cooperate for winning the war. After telling the opposition chief that he was consulted by excellent specialists to cope with the epidemic, including the question of tests, Rama said: “I will apply their advices and the strategy of tests is not framed by me, but by them,” he said inviting Basha to contribute together with him to win the war.
Quarantine for stranded Albanians at borders
With regard to the thorny question of the stranded people at borders as they are shut down, Rama said that those who come by land and are residents of other countries they will not be allowed to enter Albania’s border. “Meanwhile, for those who have other problems, they will be quarantined for 14 days in hotels at their own expenses before meeting with their families.”
He closed his communication with the people by being cut and sharp: “It is the only way to protect our people, Albania, from the disaster, and we can enable entry for cases that are really for a reason. The arrival of foreign residents is unacceptable. It’s irresponsible. However it will be made public within 24 hours how the mechanisms will work and what will be done at the border.”/argumentum.al
