TIRANA, April 19 (Xinhua) -- The Albanian government announced on Monday the decision to impose a 14-day quarantine on all travelers entering the country from Greece and North Macedonia.
The decision was announced at a press conference by Deputy Minister of Health and Social Protection Mira Rakacolli, who is also the head of the Technical Committee of Experts on coronavirus situation.
Rakacolli said that the decision was taken due to the serious COVID-19 situation in Greece and North Macedonia, where the numbers of new coronavirus cases have increased.
The new measure, according to her, will enter into effect starting from Tuesday and last until May 3.
Rakacolli said that the pandemic situation in Albania has improved thanks to the cooperation of the citizens in abiding by the restrictive rules, vaccination campaign and the precautions taken at the right time.
In addition, the Technical Committee of Experts decided to allow students studying in the first and second year in high school, who up to now were attending online classes, to return to in-classroom learning.
The Technical Committee of Experts also decided to keep in force the current nighttime curfew hours from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. local time, and university classes will remain online.
On Monday, the Health Ministry reported 100 new coronavirus cases, taking the total tally of confirmed cases in Albania to 129,694, with 102,171 recoveries and 2,347 fatalities.
As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in an increasing number of countries with already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.
Meanwhile, 272 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 88 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain, and the United States, according to the information released by the World Health Organization on April 16. Enditem