TIRANA, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- The annual Book Fair scheduled for mid-November in Tirana was canceled as the health authorities considered it a high-risk activity for the spread of COVID-19, the President of the Albanian Publishers Association Petrit Ymeri announced during an interview with local media on Friday.
Ymeri said he understood the Health Ministry's decision.
The organizers of the fair, which this year was to be held on Nov. 12-15, have decided to follow the example of other European countries and hold some of the activities online and others at different locations in the city.
This year, "the fair's main activity is to sell books online through various platforms. We encourage publishers to offer appropriate discounts," Ymeri said.
The country's health authorities have reported a record high number of new coronavirus infections in the past two days -- over 200 cases per day.
On Friday, the authorities said that in the previous 24 hours 289 new coronavirus cases were registered, bringing the total confirmed number of COVID-19 cases in the country to 16,501, with 9,957 recoveries and 443 fatalities. Enditem