Since the start of the pandemic in February 2020, healthcare workers have paid a heavy price.
“Since the beginning of July, until this day, Wednesday, August 4, we count 45 deaths among the nursing staff. This morning again, we were informed of the deaths of three colleagues, two doctors in the private sector, and a professor in the public sector”, reveals to TMT, Lyes Merabet, president of the National Union of Public Health Practitioners (SNPSP). According to the doctor, Algeria has recorded 460 deaths among healthcare workers including 262 doctors since the start of the pandemic in February 2020. And several hundred infected. Overwork and lack of recognition discourage some doctors. “Healing has become synonymous with suffering (…). When we note that the corporation has lost around forty practitioners recently with a workload that is increasing, we easily understand that some are considering leaving public structures”, confided to LIBERTE Professor Belkacem Bioud, head of the pediatrics department of the Saâdna-Mohamed Abdennour CHU in Sétif.
Third wave
Algeria is facing a third wave of Covid-19, which results in a shortage of oxygen for individuals and some hospitals due to problems with inventory management and distribution. Almost everywhere, volunteers are getting organized to relieve the sick. According to official figures, communicated by the Ministry of Health on August 5, the total of confirmed cases of coronavirus stands at 177,963, including 1,289 new cases in the last 24 hours, that of deaths at 4,441 cases, so that the number of cured patients rose to 119,152. But the official figures, that of deaths in particular, do not reflect the reality, according to testimonies of certain health professionals reported by the media. The Algerian Audiovisual Authority (ARAV) urged the media to “avoid focusing excessively on negative news” in their coverage of the health crisis.
Partial containment
Faced with this third wave, the authorities in particular prohibited access to beaches and promised to speed up the vaccination campaign, which was delayed. Partial confinement from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. is renewed for ten days from Thursday, August 5 in 37 wilayas (departments). The sales markets for used vehicles, sports halls and sports halls, youth and cultural centers are also closed. The prohibition measure also concerns “any type of gathering of people and family reunification, in particular the celebration of marriages and circumcisions and other events”. According to authorities, nearly 3.5 million Algerians have been vaccinated to date.
