TIRANA, March 25 (Xinhua) -- The Albanian government declared a state of natural disaster late Tuesday night as the confirmed number of COVID-19 cases across the country have been on the rise, according to local sources.
The Inter-Ministerial Committee on Civil Emergencies (KNEC) will be in charge of the coordination of state institutions and private entities' actions, as well as for the financial and material resources for coping with the COVID-19 epidemic for a 30-day period.
The KNEC was set up in November 2019 for the state of emergency declared due to the strong earthquake that hit the country on Nov. 26 last year.
Based on the decision, all public institutions will implement organizational and administrative measures to cope with the state of natural disaster.
Public institutions are to use the financial resources provided in the annual budget and to reassess their annual budgets, provide human and logistical resources, designate state-owned facilities under their administration responsibility, restrict access to public places, stop gatherings and strikes, limit the activities to the minimum necessary for all public bodies and quarantine all persons confirmed or suspected of being affected by COVID-19.
Under the state of natural disaster, the Public Health Institute is given the role of the KNEC technical secretariat for natural disaster issues declared due to the COVID-19 epidemic.
It also requires all citizens to respect the decisions taken during the state of natural disaster, as well as go into self-isolation and quarantine if necessary.
Moreover, all private entities are asked to respect all procedures and measures imposed under the quarantine, as well as suspend their business activities until further notice.
Albania is one of the first countries in the Western Balkan region to take strict measures in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
