The reopening of the Algerian borders remains dependent on the improvement of the health situation in the country and almost everywhere in the world. But the reports of new contaminations, the detection of new variants of the coronavirus as well as the vaccination campaign which is slow to accelerate further postpone the decision to reopen Algerian airspace.
Algeria has yet to postpone the decision to reopen the borders and resume international links. At a time when Algerian officials, headed by Head of State Abdelmadjid Tebboune, argue that Algerian borders must remain closed as long as the pandemic situation has not improved, Algeria is recording a considerable increase in coronavirus contaminations, approaching 200 daily cases (199 new cases and 9 deaths on Friday 23 April).
The other factor hindering the reopening of borders remains the detection and spread, in Algeria, of new variants of the coronavirus. In a press release released Thursday, April 22, the Pasteur Institute of Algeria ( IPA ) indicated that the country had 373 cases of new variants of the pandemic, or “143 contaminations for the British and 230 contaminations for Nigerian”. In this context, Professor Kamel Djenouhat, president of the Algerian Society of Immunology and head of the central laboratory EPH Rouiba, warned against “the Nigerian variant” which he considers “very threatening” for Algerians.
The anti-Covid vaccination campaign still lagging behind in Algeria
In addition, the vaccination campaign remains the other aspect to be taken into consideration in the question of the reopening of borders. Members of the Scientific Committee for Monitoring the Coronavirus Pandemic, reporting to the Ministry of Health, had repeatedly declared that the restrictive measures would remain in force as long as 70% of Algerians were not vaccinated. A figure which should ensure collective immunity.
However, this very ambitious goal promises to be unachievable. Indeed, after two months of the start of the vaccination campaign, Algeria was only able to vaccinate 0.17% of its population, due to a lack of vaccines. It is therefore found among the countries which have made the least progress in this public health operation. “We are far from collective immunity. We need to acquire between 30 and 40 million doses of vaccines because the quantities received are very low ”, underlined Mohamed Yousfi, head of the infectious diseases department at the hospital of Boufarik (Blida), on the airwaves of Radio. Setif. The specialist has also ruled out any possibility of reopening Algerian airspace under current sanitary conditions.
