“We are forty million on the raft of the Medusa”, summarizes, annoyed, Inès, pharmacist in the western suburbs of Algiers, to evoke the pandemic situation in Algeria, more and more worrying. “Before, in March-April [2020], we heard about deaths, today it is people I know who die, ”she continues. She shows on her phone screen while scrolling on her Facebook news feed the parade of condolences and funeral announcements. “I no longer dare to open Facebook: each time, I come across dozens of condolences, it is a slaughter. More to the east, near the El Alia cemetery, one of the largest in the country, the squares of fresh tombs extend to the rhythm of burials. “I have come to bury my mother, who died of cancer, but I stopped crying when I saw four ambulances arrived at the same time, sealed coffins carried by stretcher bearers in overalls …” testifies Ahmed, in his forties, crossed at the exit of the graveyard. “I put it into perspective, because me, my mother left in my arms, while all these unfortunate people did not have the chance to be surrounded by their loved ones, it’s horrible, God help them”, he continues. , moved.
“I’m afraid of an Italian scenario”
Officially, the country has identified 910 new cases in 24 hours, Monday evening, and 14 deaths, but these are only the statistics of the reference institute, the Pasteur Institute of Algiers, whose director, professor Fawzi Derrar, declared on public radio this week, that “Algeria is undergoing the second wave of the spread of Covid-19, whose number of contagions is constantly increasing and at an unexpected speed”. “You have to tell people the truth, I’m afraid of an Italian scenario”, worries, for her part, Lehmana Bouchama, doctor at the Covid-19 pole of the Mohamed-Lamine-Debaghine hospital in Bab El Oued in Algiers. Confiding in everyday life El Khabar this Tuesday, November 17, he explains that in two hospitals in Algiers alone there were 22 deaths in one day this week.
“The containment strategy is no longer effective, we do not have the true contamination rates, and asymptomatic contaminated people circulate freely all day long. […] The only solution is to decide on a general and total containment of at least fifteen days, we are at war against an enemy who has no mercy ”, continues Dr Bouchama. Last Sunday, the government, which speaks of a “worrying phase”, imposed the curfew from 8 pm to 5 am (it was from 11 pm) and extended it to 32 prefectures. Sports halls, places of pleasure and relaxation, recreational and leisure areas, beaches, youth centers, and cultural centers are closed for two weeks. Some businesses are ordered to close from 3 p.m. while cafes and restaurants must now limit their activities to take-out and are subject to the obligation to close at 3 p.m.
“Half measures”
“I have held out a little since March, with difficulty, but now it’s over, I will file for bankruptcy at the end of the year, I can neither pay the rent nor the salaries of my four employees,” reacts a young restaurant manager in downtown Algiers. “Still half-measures which will not change the growing course of contaminations”, estimates, for its part, the editorial ofEl Watan. The government also reiterated “the ban on all gatherings”, including weddings and circumcision celebrations, and also all “political demonstrations”, which “constitute factors in the spread of the epidemic”.
Precisely, on November 11, Professor Kamel Bouzid, head of the oncology service of the Pierre and Marie Curie center of the Mustapha CHU, had incriminated the meetings organized during the referendum campaign: “In July-August-September, the situation seemed relatively under control. because there were 250-200 new cases and 7-10 deaths per day. Completely irresponsibly, the walis [préfets] gave meeting permits for the referendum awareness campaign from October 7 to 28. And we saw on the various televisions rooms where there were between 600 and 1000 people without wearing bibs and without physical distancing. So, now, in the first week after this farce, we pay. No official comment responded to this statement.
“A hospital at home! “
According to media reports, the spread is also worrying in the education sector. According to the daily Echourouk, fifteen primary schools were closed or semi-closed, with 898 contaminations in the education sector and 400 parents of children infected. The authorities, who refuse to hear about the suspension of education, would move towards a hybrid system by doing face-to-face and remote class. Inès, in her pharmacy transformed into an anti-Covid bunker with its multiple plexiglass insulations, is in despair. “The saturation of hospitals is worrying. Well-off people buy their own respirators. After the private sector, we will have hospitals at home. It’s madness, ”she gets carried away, while the controversy has been swelling for several days over the prices considered prohibitive for tests in laboratories.
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