COVID19 Update

• Current COVID-19 situation: The Ministry of Health of Albania monitors and holds daily press conferences on the COVID-19 outbreak. The detailed and updated number of cases – including statistics on patients in remission, number of new cases, deaths and the total of positive tests for COVID-19 – is published daily on the Ministry’s website.
• As the number of new cases decreases, the government has begun to put a de-confinement process in place to open the economy step by step, including the reopening of touristic activitiesunder health and safety protocols and completely removing its curfew. On 1 June, Albania opened land borders with all neighbouring countries.
• Assessment of the health system:Two main hospitals were put into service for coronavirus patients in Tirana as “COVID 1” and “COVID 2”. According to the Albanian Ministry of Health, they had around 310 hospital beds for the hospitalisation of patients with coronavirus at their disposal. More hospitals have since been adapted to function as quarantine hospitals during the pandemic. Albania has the capacity of 500 COVID-19 tests per day with more than 15 000 persons tested to date. Additionally, the country possesses a total of 304 respirators. On 18 May, due to the decrease in the number of new cases, hospitals were allowed to start performing planned interventions and the “COVID 2” hospital returned to its usual activities. At the beginning of June, another hospital, named “COVID 3”, was adapted to prepare for a possible new wave of infections.