HEPL blog series: Country Responses to the Covid19 Pandemic

 

Albania’s response to the coronavirus pandemic

Andi Hoxhaj, University of Warwick

 

The coronavirus pandemic officially started in Albania on 8^th of March when the Ministry of Health announced the country’s first cases – a father and son who had travelled from Italy to Albania. As of 9^th May the COVID-19 record in Albania is as follows: 868 confirmed cases; 650 have recovered; and 31 deaths. It is worth mentioning that the country has a relatively low number of testing and to date has only tested 10,438 people.

The danger of the virus was played down at first, but it was taken more seriously by the authorities when the first cases were confirmed. The first measures included the suspension of travel from and to Italy, given there is a large number of Albanians in Italy – after a few days it was applied to all countries. Albania entered full lockdown on 10^th March and the Ministry of Health and the Institute of Public Health are coordinating the crisis of COVID-19. After the Government request for international assistance to respond to the outbreak of COVID-19 it has received funds and medical equipment mostly from the European Union.

Timeline of measures  

On 25^th February, the National Medical Emergency Center announced a new protocol in case of COVID-19. Furthermore, it advised Albanian citizens that arrived from abroad to self-isolate for 14 days. The Government on the same day also allocated $1 million to increase the stock of personal protective equipment. On 9^th March all educational institutions and other large public gatherings were cancelled until further notice. On 10^th March new regulations were introduced – including a 16-hour daily curfew, and citizens were allowed to go out once to buy necessities for only 90 minutes between 5am to 1pm on weekdays, and a complete shutdown on weekends.

In the first week of the lockdown, there were hundreds of citizens who disobeyed the new regulations, and on 16^th March an ‘emergency COVID-19 legislation’ was adopted – codifying various fines for violations of the rules. Those induced a fine up to 5 million Albania Lekë (£35,000) for individual citizens, and for any trade in food or medicine that did not comply with the specified government safety regulations could be fined up to 10 million Lekë (£73,000). The police and army were tasked to enforce the lockdown rules, and it uses drones to detect any violation of the new COVID-19 regulations.

On 25 April, the Government announced plans for relaxing the rules. First, by allowing citizens over 65 years to move freely keeping the social distance from 6:00 to 8:30, and from 9:30 to 17:30 the rest of citizens in some municipalities classified as ‘Green Zones’ – on 4 May, the green zones were expanded further to most municipalities in Albania. The municipalities of Tirana, Shkodër, Krujë, Durrës, Kurbin, Kamëz and Fier are labelled as ‘Red Zones’ for now because of the high number of COVID-19 infected citizens, and are expected to become a green zones by mid-May. Since the start of May, Albania has re-opened about 600 business activities as it seeks to limit the damage to the economy. 

Health system response

The testing has been slow and no clear commitments were made on the number of tests that will be performed each day – Albania so far has the capacity of 500 COVID-19 tests per day. After the outbreak, two hospitals “COVID-1” and “COVID-2” were set up for COVID-19 patients – both are based in the capital of Tirana and have around 310 hospital beds. Furthermore, the country possesses a total of 304 respirators by 4^th of May as it initially reported that it only had 140 at the start of the coronavirus outbreak.

The Albanian healthcare system was unequipped to handle the outbreak of COVID-19, and the citizens and all Government entities were aware of the situation – hence, a total lockdown was imposed within 48-hours after the first cases were reported. At first, there were a limited number of beds for potential COVID-19 patients. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the country faced shortages of facemasks, gloves, and hands sanitizers, which saw their price increase as much as 100% compared to before the outbreak – later PPE kits and other stocks were provided by Turkey, Hungary, and later from the European Union.

Financial and other support

The main financial support so far came from abroad. On 5^th of May the European Union agreed a €3 billion assistance package for enlargement and neighbourhood partners – Albania will receive €180 million in the form of a loan. In addition it received from the EU, €4 million of support for the health system and €46.7 million for social and economic recovery (these funds were originally allocated to projects under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance). The IMF has also offered financial support to Albania by approving US$190.5 million financial assistance under the Rapid Financing Instrument. Albania has also received aid for its health care system from Turkey, China, Switzerland, Norway, Hungary, the UNDP – and $700,000 in health assistance from the USA.

The government’s main support so far to the citizens and economy includes a financial support package for 176,000 families to receive 40,000 Albania Lekë during the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes 100,000 employees from small businesses, 66,000 employees from large businesses and 10,000 employees from the tourism sector. Other measures also included deferment of tax payments and social security contributions. The monetary and fiscal policies were also adjusted by amending the 2020 budget to allow spending increases and reallocations, and easing the postponement procedures by three months of loan instalments to businesses and households affected by the crisis.      

Reflections

Overall, Albania’s approach to the COVID-19 crisis has been based on the conviction that implementing the strict measures early was best – similar to the Chinese approach in order to help the country avoid a large-scale epidemic as seen in some European countries. This highly restrictive response in Albania seems also to have been motivated to prevent the added pressures on the country’s already weak and understaff heath care system, since more than 2,000 nurses have left to Germany only over the last two years. However, a number of valuable lessons on coping with this pandemic were mostly taken from neighbouring Italy.

While Albania was struggling to fight the coronavirus pandemic it sent 30 doctors and nurses for one month to the area around Bergamo, Italy’s worst affected region on 28^th March, and later on 20^th April 60 nurses. The Albanian Government received high praise across the political spectrum in Italy with its act of solidarity to its neighbour where more than 400,000 Albanians are resident. The Albanian Government as a result also manged to position itself as an example of European solidarity in the eyes of many EU countries with its ‘COVID-19 diplomacy’ shortly after it received the green light to open accession talks with the EU on 24^th March. This was a clear contrast to its main diplomatic competitor in the Western Balkans region, Serbia, whose government openly attacked the European Union in favour of China and Russia – even though the EU provided more financial support.

 

Although Albania managed to score a foreign policy success and strengthened further its diplomatic ties with Italy – the biggest promoter for Albanian EU’s membership aspirations – there are a few important political and economic issues in the context of the country’s COVID-19 crisis. There has been a limit on citizens’ access to information. Furthermore, on 16^th April the Government amended the criminal code by adding new articles that one can be sentenced from 2 to 8 years for breaking the rules on COVID-19. These articles were not based on any reliable research, but rather based on convictions. If sufficient care is not taken, these new laws could lead to arbitrary interpretations and the violation of citizens’ rights and freedoms in the courts.

 

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