Albania will receive a contingent of Covid19 vaccines as its government has already made a down payment, has announced its Prime Minister Edi Rama.
“We have paid the deposit for Covax, we have booked to get the vaccine and we are in daily communication with the EU,” Rama said in parliamentary plenary session on Monday.
On November 10, President Ilir Meta decreed the agreement between Albania and the GAVI alliance to receive together with about 80 other countries the vaccine.
Parliamentary committees in Albania approved the payment of €4 million on Monday. Initially, 1.14 million doses of vaccines will be received, which will be used for people over 60 years old, medical staff and people with concomitant diseases.
The government said it has earmarked about €12 million from the state budget to purchase the vaccine, which will be given to people in Albania for free.
In the meantime the government head said that Albania is not increasing COVID-19 testing, not because it doesn’t have money, but because the Technical Committee of Experts hasn’t requested it.
The government has been under heavy criticism for the low level of testing, the lowest in Europe. Many of those with symptoms of COVID-19 do not get tested, nor do those who have been in contact with confirmed cases.
In the meantime it is reported by health ministry that 602 new cases of infected persons were confirmed on Monday while the number of fatalities was 8 in the last 24 hours. In addition the ministry said 406 patients are hospitalized in the 3 COVID19 Hospitals in Tirana and 14 of them are in intensive care while 3 are intubated. /argumentum.al
