Algeria extends general confinement by 15 days
Confinement in Algeria until May 30. Prime Minister Abdelaziz Djerad announced this Tuesday on Oran's local radio. "After consultation with President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, the Government has decided to extend the sanitary lockdown for an additional 15 days as of 15 May", he said. The Algerian authorities had already extended the containment measures twice, most recently on April 27. However, Djerad was optimistic: "Thanks to the efforts of all the health workers, we are in a more or less controlled situation. We hope that we will soon succeed in eliminating this epidemic."
"We have reached figures that could cause concern because the number of positive cases has increased, but they know that this is related to the number of places where diagnoses are made. There are now more than 20 centres across the country," the Prime Minister explained in statements to the newspaper El Watan. The pandemic has surpassed six thousand cases: exactly 6,253 confirmed infections, in addition to 522 deaths. However, the Algerian prime minister offered positive data on the epidemiological and health situation in front of the microphones of the aforementioned local radio station in Oran: less than ten deaths per day are recorded in Algeria and less than 20 people are in intensive care, a figure, Djerad confessed, which "gives us the most security". In addition, he welcomed the good results being given to patients with coronavirus treatment with chloroquine, a drug against malaria or lupus that is also being provided against COVID-19 in other countries, including neighbouring Morocco or Tunisia.
In comparison with Morocco, the question of masks - which the Maghreb neighbour is preparing to export - does not seem to be precisely resolved in Algeria. "I'm convinced that if everyone wore a mask it would go much better. I think that we should, beyond the efforts we make from the institutions, try to have the discourse of urging the population to wear masks at home. We simply need to wear them," he urged. He also announced that seven million protection masks will be available every week to help citizens protect themselves from the coronavirus.
On April 4, the authorities of the Maghreb country announced, among other measures, the extension of the curfew from three in the afternoon to seven in the morning in several of the country's wilayas. In the case of the wilaya of the capital, Algiers, curfew confinement from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. had begun on 23 March. On 26 April, coinciding with the start of Ramadan, the Algerian regime decided to relax the lockdown and authorize shops to open to soften the impact of the pandemic. On the previous day, the authorities of the Maghreb country had also decided to shorten the curfew in several of the aforementioned regional areas. The Algerian economy has been going through a serious situation for months, which the health crisis has made more acute, due to the collapse of oil and gas prices, raw materials on which it depends.
However, the Algerian Prime Minister has admitted that he does not know what the course of the pandemic will be in his country: "Nobody knows anything about evolution, it can mutate, change clothes, form". Finally, Djerad wanted to send a message of caution from the airwaves of the radio station in Oran: "We must be careful because it is a virus of which we know nothing, but it happens not only to us, but all over the world". "We must learn from our experiences and from our crises," concluded the chief executive in statements collected by El Watan.
The Council of Ministers approved a set of measures to alleviate the economic consequences of the coronavirus crisis on May 3. The conclusions will be included in the Complementary Finance Law. The Spanish Economic and Trade Office in Algiers summarizes them: reduction of the State's operating budget by 50% - by the end of March it had been set at 30%; exemption from the payment of IRG (profit tax) to companies with profits less than or equal to 30,000 Algerian dinars, starting on 1 June; revaluation of the guaranteed minimum wage up to 20,000 Algerian dinars, starting on 1 June, and the abolition of the controlled declaration system for non-commercial professions.
In addition, the Ministry of Industry announced a series of measures to relaunch the sector; the immediate creation of a National Office of Saharan Agriculture and several national agencies is planned. Namely: National Agency for Civil Aviation, National Agency for Innovation, National Agency for Energy, and National Agency for Health Security. Finally, the Council of Ministers announced a meeting between the Government, trade unions and employers in the coming weeks.
In addition, the Government is waiting to publish the law for an upturn in oil prices triggered by the entry on May 1 of the agreement signed by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The Executive must take the necessary measures to reduce public spending, but it is also important that it takes into account the evolution of the unemployment rate, inflation and public debt, which will undoubtedly be affected by the halt in economic activity that the pandemic is causing, as estimated by the Algiers Ofecomes.