TIRANA – The figures of the last 24 hours show a missed course of the coronavirus pandemic in Albania regarding the rising curb of the infected people and of the fatalities in contrast to the positive trend of a growth of the recovered patients.
“The good news is that there have been 15 recovered patients over the last 24 hours taking to 67 the total number of Albanians affected with Covid-19, who are in good health,” said the Director of the Institute of Public Health (ISHP), Silva Bino on Wednesday.
According to her, the number of the infected persons rose to 16 as compared to 15 cases last Tuesday taking to 259 the overall number of persons affected by the virus since the outbreak of the pandemic three weeks ago. The number of the tested suspected persons stands at 1823.
The unfortunate aspect of the balance sheet in this week, which has been called by some medical specialists as the ‘critical week’, is that the number of fatalities has mounted to 15, while out of 79 hospitalized persons 7 are in intensive care.
Director Bino explained that the average age of the affected people is 50-year old a trend noted in other countries where, according to preliminary studies, the elderly are the age group mostly hit by Covid-19.
Capital Tirana remains the epicenter of the cases with a confirmed total of 140 infected persons and the coastline of Durres is ranked 2nd with 29 cases. The data on the geographic spread of the virus shows that areas in southernmost and northernmost parts of Albania are insignificantly affected with the highest cases in the Tirana – Durres megalopolis.
Specialists’ explanations on Tuesday evening’s talk shows are unanimous that the lockdown should continue but they are divided on the time when the epidemic will vanish. The well-known specialist, Pellumb Pipero, who has become very popular for the people since the outbreak of the pandemic with his untiring appearances on local TVs, hoped that people could return to activities partially by the third week of April, but cautioned that the elderly should continue to stay at home.
A gradual return to normalcy is of paramount importance for the economy which has been paralyzed with most of the economic, business, trade and social activities frozen in Albania, which even without such a blow has a feeble economy. /argumentum.al
