December 21, 2020
COVID-19: In Algeria, the vaccination campaign will start in January.
Algeria will start vaccination against COVID-19 in January, announced Sunday, December 20, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who called for the selection of the “adequate vaccine”. “I have instructed the Prime Minister to chair, without delay, a meeting with the scientific committee to monitor the evolution of the coronavirus pandemic, in order to choose the appropriate vaccine against COVID-19 and to launch the vaccination campaign in January 2021,” Tebboune wrote on his Twitter account. Algeria has still not decided on the choice of vaccine. The Prime Minister, Abdelaziz Djerad, recently assured that Algeria “will acquire the coronavirus vaccine with certain guarantees, hence the imperative to avoid any haste or random decision”.
For more information (in French), please consult the following link.
December 20, 2020
Coronavirus: Outdoor sports resume on Tuesday
The resumption of outdoor sports practice will take place from Tuesday, after the adoption of an anti-coronavirus health protocol by the Scientific Committee for Monitoring and Evaluation of the COVID-19 pandemic, a press release from the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MJS) said Sunday. The decision, which was taken in coordination with the National Centre for Sports Medicine (CNMS), concerns the following sports activities: athletics, cycling, tennis, rowing and canoeing, sailing, motor sports, badminton, skiing and mountain sports, equestrian sports and traditional sports.
For more information (in French), please consult the following link.
December 19, 2020
Dr Fourar: “Barrier measures must continue to be respected”
The spokesman for the Scientific Committee for Monitoring the Evolution of the Coronavirus Pandemic, Dr. Djamel Fourar, estimated that even if the peak was reached in November and that we have seen a relative decline in the number of cases in recent weeks, falling below 500 per day, “we must continue to respect the barrier measures and not give in to the slackening because the virus is still rampant”.
[…] This downward trend has relieved the pressure on hospitals and health workers since the outbreak of the epidemic, he said, explaining that this decrease was made possible by the containment measures implemented on the one hand, and the awareness of many citizens of the importance of complying with barrier measures on the other, he said, stressing the need to “continue to apply these measures in order to avoid a new wave as is the case in some European countries”.For more information (in French), please consult the following link.
COVID-19 slows down the first year of the process of launching an ambitious economic programme
One year after the election of the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, the country is still fighting a battle on three fronts as complex as they are difficult: an accumulation of dysfunctions exacerbated in 2019, mega institutional reconstruction projects and an urgent health crisis (COVID-19), all of which have slowed down the process of launching an ambitious economic programme.
[…] In a statement to the APS, the expert and former finance minister, special envoy of the African Union (AU), Abderrahmane Benkhalfa, said that “although 2019 was a political year par excellence in which Mr. Tebboune was elected as head of the country, its economic performance was very modest especially since the resolution of several dysfunctions has been postponed to the term of office of the elected president.“The formula of 54 commitments presented by Mr. Tebboune during his election campaign under the slogan ‘Committed to change, capable of achieving it’, reflects his ambition and willingness to effect change,” Benkhalfa said.
For more information (in French), please consult the following link.
December 17, 2020
Will Algeria choose Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine like Tunisia?
The Director of the National Health Security Agency, Mr. Kamel Senhadji gave an interview to the TSA information site on 17 December. The professor spoke about the COVID-19 vaccine that Tunisia has chosen to acquire, which apparently will be different from the one that Algeria will opt for.
This is in order to choose the best vaccine on the market, as a number of them have not yet been validated. Mr. Senhadji assured that the task force set up for this purpose was working assiduously to procure the Coronavirus vaccine as soon as possible. Without neglecting certain key parameters, such as the effectiveness of the precious remedy, he informed the online media.
He believes that the vaccine will be on the market in the very near future. According to him, according to the same source, with today’s advanced technology, increasingly effective vaccines can be designed in the shortest possible time. The director of the National Health Security Agency therefore ended his interview on a positive note.
For more information (in French), please consult the following link.
Constantine / COVID-19: More than 3600 retailers concerned by the compensation
A total of 3,674 traders, whose activities have been temporarily suspended following the spread of the coronavirus are concerned in the wilaya of Constantine by the compensation, we learned Thursday from the acting director of trade, Azzouz Goumida.
For more information (in French), please consult the following link.
December 16, 2020
President Tebboune’s long absence prompts comments in Algeria
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune reappeared publicly on 13 December for the first time since he was hospitalised in Germany.
It remains to be seen whether Abdelmadjid Tebboune will be able to regain and assume his position as President of the Republic, because it is precisely after a long hospitalization that Abdelaziz Bouteflika had to relinquish his power.
Hassan Mouali is a journalist, a specialist in political issues, and he believes that weakened, the Algerian president will find it difficult to play his role. “When you lose your health you lose power. The equation is simple. You can’t govern this state. It’s a question of who is going to be in power, not who is going to be in power.”
Abdelmadjid Tebboune called during his appearance for the revision of the electorate. A statement that would be in preparation for legislative elections scheduled for next year or a new presidential election if he were to resign for health reasons.
For more information (in French), please consult the following link.
COVID-19: Anticoagulants available through domestic production
The Minister of Pharmaceutical Industry, Lotfi Benbahmed said that the health sector had exceeded, thanks to domestic production, the recorded ruptures of anticoagulant drugs, which are also part of the therapeutic protocol against coronavirus.
In this regard, the minister reassured citizens about “the availability of these medicines at the level of pharmaceutical agencies and hospitals in sufficient quantities in the future”, mentioning that “300,000 boxes of Lovenox will soon be made available at the Drug Control Laboratory of the National Agency for Pharmaceuticals (ANPP)”.
For more information (in French), please consult the following link.
December 15, 2020
Unemployment, reduced wages: economic victims of COVID-19 testify
The collateral damage of this pandemic is enormous. Heads of household have been left without any income overnight. Others have seen their salaries cut in half and others still have been offered social plans because of the closure of their businesses…
For more information (in French), please consult the following link.
December 14, 2020
Vaccine against COVID-19: Benbouzid’s new statements
The Minister of Health, Population and Hospital Reform, Prof. Abderrahmane Benbouzid, spoke again on Monday, December 14, 2020, on the acquisition of the vaccine COVID-19 by Algeria. […] Professor Benbouzid stressed that “the announcement of the choice and date of the vaccine is the responsibility of the President of the Republic or the Prime Minister. He recalled that it is the latter who will “arbitrate” the choice submitted to them by the ad hoc scientific committee, adding that, for the moment, “the final choice has not yet been made!”
Reaffirming the country’s “prudential” approach to the choice of an anti-Coronavirus remedy, the same official reiterated Algeria’s decision to wait until the product is “qualified”, in the light of the experiences of countries already engaged in vaccination, recalling the reduction of phase 3 of the experiments carried out by the laboratories due to the global health “emergency”.
For more information (in French), please consult the following link.
COVID-19: Repression of journalists has intensified with the pandemic
Reporters Without Borders’ annual report notes numerous press freedom violations in connection with the health crisis. Although the total number of detainees has fallen very slightly, the year 2020 was marked by the arrest of “new emblematic prisoners,” such as TV5 Monde and RSF correspondent Khaled Drareni in Algeria and Vietnamese journalist Pham Doan Trang.
For more information (in French), please consult the following link.
