The spread of the covid-19 virus is putting Algeria on the brink of a health catastrophe. The bar of 1,500 daily cases was exceeded on Monday, July 26 and this is only the visible part of the huge iceberg of the pandemic.
The situation is clearly worsened by the inadequacy of health structures, lacking the means to take charge of the disease, in any case not sufficiently equipped to cope with a large influx of affected people. In hospitals, it is panic and the images that reach it are unbearable.
On Sunday, July 25, the government decreed additional measures which can be summed up in the reestablishment of confinement in the wilayas most affected, numbering 35, and the closure of certain places and public establishments in the same areas. The next day, the closure of mosques during the hours of confinement is decreed.
Late measurements
Healthy measures, but unfortunately belated. The situation has deteriorated for a few weeks and specialists have been calling for the prevention system to be tightened.
The government has procrastinated too much before taking action. Last week already, the situation was alarming in several wilayas and urgent decisions were needed, but we preferred to focus on the forms and wait for the meeting of the Council of Ministers to decree the measures that everyone demanded.
In an emergency, forms and procedures did not matter, and decisions to mitigate the intensity of the disaster could be made at any level, even at that of walis and mayors.
Another incomprehensible slowness, it was only this Tuesday, July 27, when the oxygen shortage has been suffocating hospitals and patients for several weeks, that the Ministry of the Pharmaceutical Industry lifted the obligation of prior authorization for importation. by private individuals of oxygen concentrators and other equipment intended for the fight against covid.
“As an exception, the import of oxygen concentrators or any other medical device used in response to the coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19) by individuals and for personal use is not subject to an authorization issued by the competent services of the Ministry of Pharmaceutical Industry, ” the ministry announced in a press release.
The importation of these devices by companies, establishments, and associations as donations is always subject to an authorization “to be able to benefit from the exemption from duties and taxes”.
A commodo survey for an oxygen tank
The institution of the authorization, part of the overall policy of import restrictions to preserve foreign exchange reserves, was already not opportune in the sense that savings are not made to the detriment of the health public. Maintaining it for several days, even weeks, while people are dying for lack of this equipment, is incomprehensible.
Still concerning oxygen and procedural aberrations, the mayor of Tigzirt (Tizi-Ouzou), recently launched the notice of a commodo-inconvenience investigation for the realization of an oxygen tank for the benefit of the hospital of the city.
The residents will have all their time (15 days) to give their opinion, then it will undoubtedly be the call for tenders and the other procedures. Internet users have not failed to note that by the time the reservoir is completed, the covid and the oxygen shortage will have caused a massacre.
The death toll from this situation is already very high. Shocking scenes are filmed in major hospitals across the country. In these conditions, sticking to procedures to the detriment of efficiency is irresponsible.
The same can be said of the decision of the oxygen plant in Ouled Moussa (Boumerdès) which, it seems, only serves “contracted” customers.
A citizen from Azazga (Tizi-Ouzou), testified on social networks that he waited all night in front of the factory to hear that the Azazga hospital was not “contracted” and that, therefore, it cannot be supplied with oxygen. However, it is a matter of life and death for dozens of patients.
Finally, the government has taken all its time to acquire oxygen concentrators that hospitals are in dire need of for treating patients. On this point, either he lacked anticipation or he preferred to wait since the oxygen problems were posed during the 2nd wave in November 2020. The government could have taken advantage of the lull that followed this wave to equip hospitals. He didn’t do it for incomprehensible reasons.
Beaches closed, others not
At a higher level, there is no shortage of aberrations in the management of the crisis. At least two are obvious in the latest decisions taken by the Council of Ministers.
First, the imposition of a nighttime curfew, as if the virus only circulates at night. For many specialists, it is unnecessary because Algerian cities do not have nightlife traditions.
Even in normal times, people do not go out at night and the majority of businesses close early. During the day, people can storm supermarkets and other establishments and move around freely, as can the virus.
The most incomprehensible of the government’s decisions is that of closing the beaches only in the wilayas affected by the curfew. Those of four coastal wilayas (Chlef, Annaba, Skikda, and El Tarf) were left open.
A decision that risks creating new clusters since nothing will prevent the citizens of the wilayas whose beaches are closed, and therefore who are experiencing a strong spread of the virus, from going to those relatively spared to swim in their open beaches.
The officials of the wilayas of Chlef, Annaba, and El Tarf, not affected by the curfew, realized the risk and decided to close all the beaches on the coast of their respective wilayas.
The risk was to see summer visitors from across the country flocking, and the virus with it, to the beaches left open. Those who initially spared them from the closure decision lacked judgment.
There is also this decision by the Ministry of Religious Affairs to suspend collective prayers in mosques during curfew. That is to say the prayers of Fajr, Al Îcha, and El Maghreb in certain wilayas. During the day, collective prayers are allowed.
