Author: Brejdon Xhavara
The Covid-19 pandemic began in November 2019. In March 2020, a traveler from Italy to Albania was registered as patient zero in our country.
The Albanian government was immediately put under the influence of public pressure to take measures to protect citizens, seeing that during the first days of March, there were new infections every day. On March 8, 2020, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection announced through an "order" the closure of public and non-public activities and the cancellation of mass gatherings in closed or open places. This was the beginning of several months of quarantine in the country.
Small essential businesses started to work with reduced hours, some we closed and nothing was left open in the city, not a cafe or a shop, everything was isolated. During the months that passed, the pandemic made the economic situation of every family in Albania more difficult, but with the arrival of the summer season, the government eased the anti-covid measures, giving more space to Albanian citizens and tourists to relax on the Albanian coast and take participate in public meetings, but always under strict conditions.
Who was affected by the pandemic?
The pandemic in Albania forced hundreds of businesses to remain closed for a three-month period, thus bringing economic problems. Although the government enabled two economic packages, businesses still did not recover, and as they opened, prices continued to rise.
Event agencies represent a sector that was widely affected by the pandemic as festive ceremonies were not allowed. According to the Technical Committee of Experts, indoor festive activities, as well as concerts, cinemas and theaters, were one of the key factors in the spread of Covid-19 in the population. During the summer season, the months of June-August marked the peak period of festive events, such as weddings or concerts. The white shirts continuously raised the concern that these activities present a risk of the spread of mass infections and the worsening of the pandemic situation.
"Grumbles, staying for a long time without maintaining the distance and closed premises, the air conditioning systems that are active in the summer and circulate the indoor air made this situation a risk environment. This coupled with the fact that a wedding or a concert is a moment of joy and as a result, people have the tendency to reduce the increased care", said doctor Ali Alimehmeti for ACQJ.
He also lists several other foci of infection, also influenced by new variants of the virus, such as the Delta variant. "Amore people remained closed, such as buses, public transport are also hotbeds of infection. When we talk about weddings, there is another element, that many people from outside Albania come to weddings and as a result they have the possibility of bringing variants of Covid", he explained.
How many measures were implemented?
During the months of June-August 2021, the summer season began where Albanian and foreign vacationers filled the Albanian shores. In these months, the Albanian government eased the anti-Covid measures, giving complete freedom to any Albanian citizen or foreigner to enter Albania through sea, land and air borders without having any guarantee that they are vaccinated or handing over a tampon which proves whether it is infected with Covid or vice versa. Everything seemed to be back to normal, local institutions started organizing summer parties in the squares of their cities where more than 100 people gathered, on the Albanian shores there were mass gatherings, concerts or night-life until 23:00 p.m., where almost no one did not respect the anti-covid measures.
However, according to the orders of the Ministry of Health (MSHMS), it was not allowed to carry out any festive event as gatherings bring many infections in the population.
But in fact, it didn't happen like that.
The Albanian Center for Quality Journalism interviewed a restaurant owner in the Fresk area of Tirana, who said that even under the conditions of the ban, weddings and other family celebrations have taken place. "During the entire time of the pandemic and the limitation of schedules, I had many bookings from couples who were from Italy, Greece, but also here in Tirana. I asked the police if we can hold weddings, they told me no, but then I found the opportunity (my friend) with 400-500 thousand lek to hold the wedding without any obstacles by paying this money to the police officers so that to patrol that area. Although according to the order it was not allowed to hold weddings or various joys, there were people who insisted that they do it, since the year before (2020) nothing was allowed and it was very difficult for us to cope, since we are alone in this work get married, weddings and other joys", completed AZ for ACQJ.
From 2019-2020 in Albania, it was impossible to hold a festive event due to the conditions in the country. An Albanian couple living in Italy told ACQJ their wedding story. "We got married on August 14 [2021] in one of the restaurants in Tirana. We had booked since 2020, but since everything was closed in Albania, we postponed the wedding to next year and in 2021, in the month of August, we had the wedding, we invited some of our relatives. The fear that we could get infected with Covid-19 was great, but since we knew our people we got through it more easily, so we didn't think too much and we did the wedding", KS explained
The ACQJ reporter asked the couple if they paid the owner of the bar so that the police would not stop their wedding. They replied that a relative of theirs who lived in Tirana had taken this job. He was the one who had paid the money so they wouldn't be bothered by the police.
From the observations that ACQJ carried out during the months of July-August 2021, in two areas in Tirana (Kombinat and Fresk) through the social networks of artists' and DJ's pages, it resulted that in this period of time more than 100 festive events were carried out.
A DJ with the initials EB, who agreed to be interviewed by ACQJ, said that during the period July-August 2021 he has attended more than 60 weddings and engagements. "The pandemic hit all of us who provide Services at various events, but we keep up with this work, and it's normal that I was forced to go to weddings because I had reservations a year ahead", explains EB in the Fresco area.
Asked by the ACQJ if he was aware of the corruption being committed by restaurant owners to allow weddings, he indicated that "when we go to weddings, we go with a "sleeping mind" because there is someone else who takes care of it and we continue work until the early hours of the morning. concluded EB
During this investigation that lasted about 3 months, we discovered that weddings were allowed to take place at least in the two areas around Tirana (Ndroq, Vaqarr) and the area of Fresk, Dajti by paying an amount of 400-500 thousand lek to the police officers, who they were not patrolling at that time or in that area.
According to the Ministry of Health, the issued orders must be implemented by the State Police and health structures, for this purpose ACQJ sent two official letters to the State Police and the Tirana Local Police Directorate.
In both responses from the police structures, there is a lack of coordination as the State Police stated that "During the period June - August 2021, there were several cases of mass gatherings at parties, wedding ceremonies, etc. and meanwhile the Tirana Local Police Directorate stated that for in the period June-August 2021 there is no administrative measure.
We contacted the Ministry of Health and Social Protection to get a comment regarding its non-implementation for allowing more than 50 people in closed premises, but this institution said that the implementation of the law is the competence of other bodies, and clearly defined in the normative act.
As this institution passed the responsibility to other institutions that must implement the laws and orders, we asked for a comment from the State Police, which refused to comment, but once again referred us to the answer they gave as above, that in the months of July and August, according to the inspections of the state police, only 7 cases were found who violated the rules and carried out festive events where they were fined one million lek.
Weddings in the "surrounding state" against a bribe of 300-500 euros
The Albanian Center for Quality Journalism through an observation only on social networks identified hundreds of posts of events that took place in the months of June-August 2021. From reliable sources that prefer to remain anonymous to have a wedding in Tirana, you have to pay a 300- 500 euros for the neighborhood chiefs or inspectors (the plenipotentiary of the area) so that the wedding or event can take place without having problems with the law.
The last order issued by the Ministry of Health and Social Protection regarding gatherings is that no more than 50 people are allowed in open places, gatherings, party meetings and wedding ceremonies. This order was eased by providing for the holding of conferences with capacities up to 30% until July 1, 2021.
Currently, a curfew is being implemented in Albania, which means that businesses are not allowed to operate from 23.00:6 p.m. to XNUMX:XNUMX a.m., as well as the circulation of citizens, except for necessary reasons, in this time zone, but a simple search on the networks social clearly shows that this order was not respected during the summer period, and continues to be not respected by many operators in this line of business.
Two years have already passed since the pandemic, but the measures and orders issued by the Ministry of Health and Social Protection show a different reality, every day there are new cases and fatalities, citizens do not distance themselves and do not take care, various political or festive events have led in recent times in a significant increase in positive cases with Covid-19, making the orders completely unenforceable, but our observation showed that even in the summer season the orders were violated massively, with the police "turning a blind eye" and other law enforcement agencies that shifted responsibility elsewhere.
