With barely 30% of the national vaccine rate and the gradual increase in cases due to the Omicron variant, Algeria is trying to cope with the fourth wave.
I’m not sure if I will continue to open. I feel the party is going to end soon. »Alas, Amine, manager of a restaurant bar on the heights of Algiers, sweeps his gaze around the room of his very busy establishment at the start of the weekend. “I have two friends who have just been infected and around me, there is not a person who does not tell me about a loved one who has caught the disease”, worries the young manager, who thinks that, at this rate, the authorities would be tempted to limit, once again, access to places of relaxation.
Since December-January, the official figures of Covid-19 contamination have been increasing, after a slight decrease, exceeding 500 cases per day, announcing the start of the fourth wave. For Mohamed Yousfi, head of the infectious diseases department at Boufarik hospital (south of Algiers), the situation is “worrying”.
Hospitals on alert
“In a month, the number of patients presenting to hospital departments suspecting Covid infections is six times greater,” he told El Watan. Even the very official state news agency, APS, recognizes that Algerian hospitals are beginning to be impacted by these increases in cases and advanced worrying figures. For example, the large hospital in Algiers, the Mustapha-Pasha CHU, has gone from 8 to 9 hospitalizations per day, in December, to now 20 cases. At Zéralda hospital (west coast of Algiers), the bed occupancy rate is 91%, with an intensive care unit 100% saturated. In the Nafissa-Hammoud hospital in Algiers, we have gone from fifteen hospitalizations in December to 50 in the last few days, and the trend, according to practitioners, is on the rise. “We are in an epidemiological opacity. We don’t know exactly what’s going on. This increase is certainly related to Omicron, although we cannot confirm this, given that there is no daily sequencing. explains Professor Mostefa Khiati, President of the National Foundation for Health Promotion and Research Development.
Far from the 70% of vaccinated
Officially, and according to updated data from the Institut Pasteur in Algiers, Algeria has 145 cases of the Omicron variant as of January 13, mostly detected in the capital. The Delta variant, still according to the Institut Pasteur, represents a proportion of 67% of cases currently, while it was at 80% in December. “Insofar as the new variant is very contagious, this risks putting strong pressure on health structures”, worries Professor Mohamed Yousfi in the columns of El Watan.
Faced with the emerging emergency, the authorities keep calling on Algerians to be vaccinated. According to the Department of Health, 6,996,002 people received a single dose, 5,763,106 others received two doses and only 147,250 people received the third dose. Or a vaccination rate of less than 30%. We are far from the goal of vaccinating 70% of Algerians. “I accompanied my grandparents for the third dose, and there was not a crowd,” testifies Nadia, met near a polyclinic at Sources, in Algiers. According to figures from the Ministry of Health, dated mid-December, the vaccination rate of students does not exceed 2%, 27% among teachers, and 31% for caregivers.
The Institut Pasteur insists on the fact that the most serious hospitalizations and deaths concern unvaccinated people. How to push Algerians to be vaccinated en masse? This is the puzzle of the moment. The last rebound in terms of vaccination dates back to last summer when a deadly third wave created panic, even causing endless lines in front of vaccination centers. Should we wait for the situation to degenerate once again for the Algerians to be vaccinated?
The upcoming introduction of a vaccination pass
At the end of December, the government announced the imminent introduction of a vaccination pass, a document justifying full vaccination, for anyone over the age of eighteen. According to the decree establishing this vaccination pass, “the age condition may be revised on the proposal of the authorized health authority, after consulting the scientific council for monitoring the evolution of the coronavirus pandemic”. Because the idea of vaccinating children is starting to gain traction with the authorities. The cases of “family” contaminations are on the rise in recent weeks, especially among schoolchildren, according to several experts, but the Ministry of Education’s national government refuses to close the establishments. In December 2021, the authorities decided, precipitously, to bring forward the date of the winter school holidays, exceptionally extended by one week, due to the spread of the virus, especially in schools. As for the health pass, it will be required by the border health control services for entry and exit from the territory. This document will also be requested at the entrance of stadiums and sports halls, swimming pools, spaces hosting seminars and conferences, cinemas, theaters and museums, party rooms, hammams, etc. According to Professor Réda Djidjik, head of the immunology service at the Beni-Messous hospital in Algiers, “This vaccination pass should be generalized even to shopping centers and all state institutions. People who are not vaccinated will not be able to access any institution, any shopping center, and any activity. We will thus indirectly encourage anyone to be vaccinated.”
The next few weeks will tell us if this vaccination pass and the panic facing this fourth wave will really encourage Algerians to go for the vaccine.
