Prime Minister Edi Rama’s statement to the media following visit to the vaccination centre at the Air Albania stadium in Tirana to monitor the vaccination process:
– How the vaccine rollout is progressing and are there plans to kick off administering the COVID-19 vaccines to the older people in care homes in Tirana?
PM Edi Rama: Yes, vaccination for older adults is underway. We visited the residential care home in Tirana prior to coming here and the vaccines are being administered to the elderly and the care homes staff members, who have actually done an heroic job, because, as you also know, the nursing homes for the elderly have been the spots of collective tragedies, so to speak, in many countries across Europe as a result of the spread of the virus. There have been recorded tragic cases when all the old people in these institutions have passed way, whereas here, the nursing staff members have isolated themselves along with the elderly they care for and they have lived together in these homes, making thus a sacrifice to save the lives of the old people. No deaths have been recorded in the residential care homes for the elderly thanks to the total quarantine they have observed.
The vaccine rollout for around 1000 persons is set to complete this week, while the process is being expanded to include entire network of the health professionals. Doctors and nurses from Durres, Mat, and Bulqize are receiving the vaccine today, whereas, if I am not wrong, the process is set to begin in Vlora tomorrow. The process will the process by administering the COVID-19 vaccines to a growing number of older adults, who are personalities, to whom we should provide best care possible and not remember them by delivering speeches when they pass away.
We expect an important confirmation to finalize the deal about 360.000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses as soon as possible.
Last night, we established contacts with another friendly nation as part of the contacts we have already established with a number of various states. Again, we have real hope and expectations to secure another shipment of vaccine doses. We remain fully confident we will the A scenario for vaccination of the entire population in 14 months – of course I mean the ones who wish to receive the vaccine as the process is not mandatory – is attainable.
– Mr. Rama, you wait for the vaccine doses at the airport every time a shipment of the vaccine is delivered. Will you keep on with this tradition?
PM Edi Rama: When the initial boxes of vaccines arrived and when I didn’t wait them at the airport, you started to claim the opposite, saying: “why the vaccines are being delivered secretly?” Why don’t we see them? And Prime Ministers in other countries wait for the deliveries in person. You also claimed that fake doses of Covid-19 vaccines or physiological water vials are being brought in as part of the propaganda. Given that making, and our nation particular over the centuries has never been able to solve the dilemma about “what sort of water to give the donkey,” I have decided to do what I think is right to do and then, as the case may be, the donkey could decide for itself whether the water should be warm or cold.
– Who is the donkey in this case?
PM Edi Rama: Understandably, I am the donkey as I carry the heavy loads, I deal with criticism, yet I am a good donkey as I carry the load to the destination, I always do, although those who Faik Konica describes as Albania’s active lazy people, do not leave me alone at no point. However, I am used to them because they make my path easier, and they provide me with more energy and more determination.
I would like to add something else about this expression “I talked with doctors.” Of course, the freedom of speech is guaranteed and everyone has the right to speak. And of course, there is a lot of nonsense in the multitude of the words that are said. In the meantime, what is happening represents a perseverance to terrify the public by using witnesses, who emerge close to the hospital fences, just like it was the case of a lady, for example, who claimed that she couldn’t collect even the clothes of a deceased person, because they had stolen them. But the case was very simple.
– Was that person alive …
PM Edi Rama: Why she was to collect the clothes if that person was alive?
– Was he transferred to another hospital?
PM Edi Rama: We are referring to two different cases. I was not talking about the most recent one, but I was referring to an earlier case actually. The simple truth is that the lady didn’t posses an identity card. Once she presented an identity card, she collected the clothes. Meanwhile, people were provided partial information, just like it was the case involving two other ladies, who were lamenting their father’s death outside the hospital building – and I extend my condolences over their loss – but nobody provided the rest of information, as it was clarified by the Directorate of the University Hospital Centre that accurately told what and how it had happened and there was nothing true in that statement of pain and political party statement. Please, people are rightly too sensitive. Of course, everyone should report and disclose any case of abuse, just like it was the case that was reported and sent to prison four abusers and thugs, and there might be other cases too, but they cannot tarnish the professional and moral integrity of all medical personnel that for a year now are doing an heroic job and don’t deserve to be subject to a smear campaign and all sorts of disinformation. Therefore, I would urge you to show more respect or all people who are in pain and I hope nobody else experiences such situation and I offer my condolences to everyone, and I understand them, especially those who blame doctors for their loss, but I don’t offer my understanding you that take advantage of their pain to embark on a propaganda campaign, serving the interest of other people or your own interest to gain audience and as many likes.
We have no right that medical personnel are perfect. There is no perfect job. Every job has its shortcomings and deficiencies, otherwise it would not be a job and we would not be humans, if we are infallible. But, please demonstrate highest awareness possible as amid this situation people need the truth more than anything else, pluralistic information more than anything else, or both.
