The news was made public by the Minister of Health and Social Protection, Ogerta Manastirliu at the today’s conference of the Technical Committee of Experts on the pandemic situation and measures to cope with COVID-19.

“The number of infections remains worrying in the national context, but also European and regional one where there is a growing tendency of the number of infections even though European countries are in their second or third lockdown,” Minister Manastirliu said.

“The reasonable suspicions we had turned out to be true. In the January-February situation assessment, PCR samples were analyzed in the virology laboratory at the Institute of Public Health (IPH). The laboratory used specific kits, analyzed and interpreted the data with the support of colleagues in the international reference laboratory centers, in this case IPH cooperated with IPH based in Ankara. The results showed that the samples were infected with the new coronavirus variant. This mutation is the UK variant of COVID-19, which is circulating in 70 countries of the world according to the WHO,” Manastirliu said.

The measures that continue to remain in force are those of restricting the movement of citizens, starting from 20:00 to 06:00, for health emergencies and work reasons (in this case permission is required through the application to e-Albania. There is still in force restriction on bars, restaurants, clubs from 22: 00-6: 00 (except delivery service). The determined high schools will continue online classes. And universities will also go on online, besides the combined exams. Flights to the UK continue to be suspended.  //a.i/