Minister of Health Ogerta Manastirliu announced today that due to the increased numbers of patients at the four COVID-19 hospitals in Tirana, two more facilities will be opened in Shkodra and Durres.
Speaking in Parliament this morning, she said:
“Yesterday we reached more than 500 hospitalized in the four COVID-19 hospitals. As such we will open regional hospitals from today. We will start with Durres and Shkodra, and then Vlora, Korce, and Elbasan. Then we will move onto other scenarios.”
This was despite the fact that the Albanian government said they had opened the regional center in Elbasan on 15 December. They noted it had three specialized wards with 81 available beds.
At the time, Manastirliu noted that there are five regional hospitals that will be set up for COVID patients. They have a combined capacity of 600 beds, bringing the total number of beds in COVID hospitals to 1600.
A visit to the Elbasan hospital last week by Faktoje found that regional centres were not prepared for use as COVID-19 hospitals.
