Prime Minister Edi Rama’s remarks at press conference at Mother Teresa Airport on COVID-19 vaccination program planning and implementation, while waiting arrival of 7020 vaccine doses under the contract with pharmaceutical company Pfizer, which will be followed by more deliveries in the coming weeks:
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Good evening! Thank you for taking the trouble to come here! Given that the delivery of another shipment of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines, I think it is really important to explain the progress of this situation. An initial delivery of 1170 doses arrived earlier, whereas 7020 vaccine doses are about to arrive today and, according to the new schedule presented by the company following the temporary suspension of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine delivery to whole Europe, more deliveries will arrive regularly in the coming weeks until entire number of doses arrive within March, though we had previously announced that the vaccines would be provided in April, May and later.
It is worth explaining so that the citizens, who are rightfully and impatiently waiting for the vaccines, clearly understand that in the meantime we are intensely communicating and negotiating a deal with the company AstraZeneca and these communications take place on several levels. Besides the direct communications with the pharmaceutical company, similar communications are also taking place with various countries. Today we have received a written confirmation from a friendly country on provision of 360.000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses, which, always based on this communication, will start to be delivered in April. I am announcing this information without wanting to confirm anything as long as an agreement has yet to be signed, because this situation could change every day and every word now could sound as propaganda, as an attempt to fool people, or as an electoral campaign pledge. The confirmation is actually the outcome of a very intense communication. I am looking forward to establishing high-level contact with the government of this country in the coming days and everything will be revealed to the public and it won’t be a secret contact. For now, it would be better that we respect these new norms dictated by this situation, where 90% of the job is done via codes and secret talks.
In the meantime, we also expect that –according to the contract – the company Pfizer would allow us to also conclude the deal – in the sense of its implementation because the agreement has been actually finalized – with the state that provided us the initial vaccine doses and, as I have already announced, they represent only one third of the promised doses, which are ready to be delivered, but the contract Pfizer signs with other countries stipulates that they should receive Pfizer’s approval on every possible action and we can’t activate this quantity of doses without receiving the company’s approval first.
With the arrival of the new doses today and with a clear perspective regarding the 40.000 confirmed doses, we will gradually start to expand the vaccine rollout immediately this week in Vlora and Shkoder. The process will then extend to other cities like Elbasan and Fier. In parallel with the vaccination of doctors and nurses, the National Emergency members and other frontline health workers, we will also start administering the vaccines to the older adults. We have every reason to be convinced that we can still achieve it – I’m talking about the time frame, the target to fully complete vaccination process in 14 months. It is only a matter of confirming the quantities and availability of the quantities, but with the delivery of Pfizer vaccine shipments during this time, we will start mass vaccination. In the meantime, we remain hopeful that more important confirmations will be announced by the company AstraZeneca in the coming weeks, as well as from the communications we are holding with several friendly countries.
This is the overall situation. I would apologize for the mysterious aspect of the conversation, but I think you are now used to it. The situation is as such.
As you see for yourselves, the vaccine provision remains a serious problem throughout Europe. However, I would like reiterate this for all of those who rush to offer their advices and arguments over issues they clearly have no idea what it is about. First of all, this is not a matter of funds. We face no problems regarding funds. In other words, the vaccine is not available at a certain market waiting for buyers to purchase it. This is not a matter of wealthy or poor countries, because we do not rank among the wealthy countries, yet we have reached a contract with the company and we are constantly receiving the Pfizer vaccine. As you all witnessed, it was just yesterday when the President of Serbia travelled to the North Macedonia’s border to deliver a box of 4000 vaccine doses and allow North Macedonia begin what we have already started earlier. North Macedonia hasn’t reach any deal with the company Pfizer and it expects to receive a delivery of the Chinese vaccine in the coming days or weeks. Other countries in the region have yet to start the vaccination program and, unfortunately, they have nothing concrete for now, of course also to the disgrace of the wealthiest and most powerful nations on the planet, so to say so that I don’t engage again into useless and unsolicited controversies with the European Union, which remains our point of reference, and which is still facing a great deal of trouble in this respect.
Now that everyone is openly saying it and it is no longer necessary that I state what I already said since the very beginning, taking notice of the facts, and not to oppose the European Union but to tell the bitter but clear truth. It is totally unfair, unjustifiable that nations in this part of Europe, surrounded by the European Union’s borders, keep now counting how many vaccine doses were administered in Greece, Italy or elsewhere in Europe, while waiting for the first vaccine to be injected, or just it is the case with Albania, where rightly so we are seeking to bring in more doses, or looking how Serbia is administering thousands of doses of the Chinese vaccine. Serbia has made its own choice and there is nothing to discuss about it, yet it is a country right at the heart of Europe and if it has addressed to China, in the conjuncture that Serbia is, it has done so because otherwise Serbia would have been like us today.
This is the situation. You are now welcome to make questions until the vaccine doses arrive. The good news is that it is not about just a vaccine box but two of them, as it was the case in the first shipment. Because it was just a vaccine box that was delivered at the border between Serbia and North Macedonia, but a crowd of people came together, as the coronavirus vaccine has become as the gold of this era. More and more vaccine boxes will follow until the process enters a normal stage I wish we will enter very soon. Certainly, we will then face the challenge regarding the number of vaccine doses we will be able to administer each day. In this respect too, we will demonstrate that we are well-prepared to achieve the desired numbers after maximum preparation efforts have been already done for this process. Just imagine what would be happening here if we were still in the situation, where we had yet to secure a contract and we didn’t know where the vaccines would come from, and when we had no news about the vaccine doses due to be delivered under the COVAX platform, which we have paid in advance last year.
Before coming here, I took a look at the number of households across the U.S. are without power as we speak because of the severe winter weather and snowstorms. Of course, the power lines in the US cannot be compared to the state of the power lines here, where we have already started to invest in for the first time since the country’s electrification era, but they still remain very weak lines in certain parts of the country and it would take just a storm or a moderate wind to break them. The report I came across didn’t include all U.S. states indeed. I calculated the figures and it turned out that 3 million households across the U.S. are without power now. Of course, such things happen in the wake of snowstorms, just like it happens that the roads become impassable due to snowstorms. Roads are blocked in every country, because no country has invented a special plastic covering to protect roads so that the snow stays above this covering and Andi Bushati or the like return back from skiing and feel like a potential killer of those who govern. Science has not succeeded to date to manufacture snowplow that can collect snow in the air.
In the meantime, some have also suggested that salt should be thrown on the roads before the snowfall, saying you knew that the snowstorm was coming and roads wouldn’t have become impassable should the salt was thrown in advance. Or the eyes here are so sharp that they not only instantly notice, but also feel insulted that shovels are still being used in Albania. What do you want to use? Rockets? Shovels are used in every country. I believe you have seen the situation in Athens, where the city and roads were totally blocked. Being curiously enough, I took a look at the Greek media, yet I saw no report, comment or political commentator who would express murderous instincts against the government.
But we have all been here, and for us not to draw other comparisons, but when I draw comparisons with Austria, Germany, Spain, Greece or other countries that have been much more prepared over the decades and countries where snowfall is an eternal phenomenon, but I do so to say why it shouldn’t happen here when it actually happens in these countries? It could have happened that the Nation’s Road could be completely impassable, as Highway 2 in Spain was blocked in January. It could have happened here too, that people could have died. Do a research and find out the number of people who have died in the EU member states due to the severe weather and storms. Thankfully it did not happen for certain circumstances that have nothing to do with our merits, but the roads were unblocked and passable in record time. This is because intense work was done. The Minister got on the snowplow for the people to listen what she was to say at the peak of an ongoing snowstorm. While she herself says that she was getting on a snowplow because otherwise nobody would hear her, because it was a storm going on.
However, most importantly this is a noisy minority that has nothing in its power in the Republic of Albania. This matters most.
Me poshte vijon pjesa e dyte e konf per shtyp e KM Rama para mberritjes se ngarkeses se radhes se vaksinave ne aeroport:
– You drew a comparison with the United States regarding the situation due to the winter storm. However, despite the severe weather, the population’s mass vaccination is underway in the U.S. While here, also because of the bad weather, health professionals are the only ones to receive the vaccine currently. Do you know when the COVID-10 vaccine rollout for the population is going to begin, of course according to the vaccination plan with the elderly and the risk groups? Is there a precise figure, in addition to ones you just mentioned, what will be the amount of vaccines that is slated to arrive until early spring? This is because experts say that the spread of the infection could decrease by spring. Do you have a figure on both Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccine doses?
PM Edi Rama: Again, the comparison with the U.S. was to show that even such a very developed country with unquestionable capacities to serve its people, still around 3million households are without power due to the snowstorms, which is a phenomenon that takes place frequently. It is actually needless to say such things since we no longer live in the communist -era Albania. We now live in an Albania, where each remote controller offers hundreds of TV channels and everyone can read information about whole world by using the smart phone devices. Strangely enough, they are not impressed about events taking place outside Albania when they see these foulmouthed individuals who show up on TV studios, news websites and social networks to cause contemptible roar and describe as the end of the world everything that takes place in Albania. That’s why I drew this comparison, because, clearly enough, the snowstorms cause two immediate effects everywhere. Such storms block roads and cause power outages in Germany, Sweden and everywhere else. Of course, the response capacities are what determine the effectiveness of the service and I believe that if we today were to compare the situation in the wake of that extremely wild winter storm with the snowfall situations just few years ago, I can say it is completely incomparable. Take a look at the news stories you have reported few years ago. You have reported them from the ground and it is you who have aired images of overturned cars along the Nation’s Road or other roads everywhere, which used to turn into ice rinks. Of course, the U.S. is conducting the vaccination process. Don’t forget that it is the country where the COVID-19 vaccine is produced and the country where the Pfizer central headquarters is located, and where the President has issued an executive decree depriving others from the vaccine until all American citizens receive the vaccine.
Rightly you notice that the U.S. is carrying out mass vaccination, while I look at the region. In this neighbourhood of ours, right at the heart of Europe, Albania and Serbia only have reached deals with the vaccine manufacturers and have launched the vaccination process. Serbia has faster vaccine rollout as the country has received the Chinese vaccine, and has made a choice I don’t prejudice and I am completely neutral. Yet, this is not our choice. Even it would have been our choice, you should understand that the Chinese vaccine too is not available at the market for everyone to purchase. It is not easy to gain access to this vaccine too. The countries seeking to secure this vaccine have to wait for a long time and cannot secure it easily.
We continue to believe we are on the right track, except for the fact that we faced a delay of several weeks as a result of the total vaccine distribution suspension to Europe imposed by Pfizer.
As to the population groups, we plan to start the vaccine rollout for the elderly people in parallel with the doctors and nurses. The older adults in care homes will be the first to receive the vaccine. In the meantime, in order to raise awareness and respect certain individuals in the category of the oldest people, who have contributed a lot to this country, we will administer the vaccine to some of them, who are people we should remember for their contribution while they are still alive and we are obliged to protect them. Of course, with more vaccine doses slated to arrive in the coming weeks, we will further expand the process. Most importantly, based on the confirmed deliveries we will receive soon, we will be able to complete vaccination of all doctors and nurses and the process will then be speeded up to administer the vaccine to the older adults.
–Mr. Prime Minister, you somehow touched upon the Chinese vaccine issue, saying that securing this vaccine would take negotiations and time. Is this orientation towards the Western vaccines, namely the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines a geopolitical decision?
PM Edi Rama: It could probably be the case. However, we have been from the day one and continue to be very clear, that we follow what is the framework where we feel part of, and where we want to be fully integrated, which is the framework of the European Union. Do not forget that China’s Sinovac has not been approved for use. Therefore, under such circumstances, we think we are not in the position to feel that we have lost an opportunity or time, because the Chinese vaccine is sought by many countries and it is not that the Chinese are just waiting for countries to ask for their vaccine. Of course, seen from the perspective of our ties, we could have definitely made an attempt and we would probably be forced to do so in the future – I don’t rule it out – yet I don’t wish that we do so, because it would be very bad for the EU. For me, I think it was very bad that North Macedonia, not that he made a free choice between several vaccines, but the country was forced to ask China for its vaccine. It was bad, not for North Macedonia, but for the EU.
Just like it is very bad for the EU that Serbia is able to provide 4000 Pfizer vaccine doses to North Macedonia, whereas the European Union, as we speak, is unable to deliver even a single package of vaccines to the countries in the region.
–If we are to consider the size of the population compared to the number of people who have contracted the COVID-19 virus in Albania, their number is really high, probably comparable to the number of infections in Greece, if we of course consider the size of the population. Greece, our neighbouring country, has decided to impose lockdown rules in several cities classified as red zones, while Albania has just extended the curfew hours, but no quarantine rules are imposed. Is this because the parliamentary elections are nearing?
PM Edi Rama: Who alleges this? This is because I haven’t come across this; that freedom is granted because of the elections. The citizens’ health is much more important than the elections and anything else, but we believe that considering the current situation and if we will be able to maintain such a balance, we don’t need to impose a lockdown for 1001 reasons that I have carefully listened from our experts, as well as from many other personalities I communicate with to learn more, as I am not an expert in this domain. Meanwhile, the concern over another pandemic is taking hold, and this is the psychic pandemic. This is for real; it is not funny at all. And such a pandemic implies the traumatic effects of all this time and the restrictions. We need to keep one more thing in mind. When Greece decides to impose a lockdown, or when an EU member state decides to observe a total lockdown, there is a “European account” that responds to cover their needs.
There are all these components we need to take into account. It is easy to say that the lockdown should be imposed, but why, for what reason? If the number of fresh cases remains within our projections and if our hospitals continue to deliver care within the scenarios we have predicted, then life will go on with the existing restriction measures we have imposed to allow people breathe freely and engage in their limited social interactions, so that children can go to school. We should bear all these elements in mind and that’s why the reasoning of our experts in the Technical Committee is comprehensive and it is not merely a mechanical reasoning. Of course, if people fail to abide by the restriction measures, if they fail to wear the face masks when leaving home, if they don’t respect those minimum rules, then, definitely the curfew will extend further and the restrictions will be harsher. God forbid that we become forced to impose another total lockdown, because if so, it would happen even it is the election day. This doesn’t mean that you should now speculate “this is Rama’s secret plan”, “lockdown on the election day”, because this is not the idea. I am talking about the current circumstances. We need to consider all of this and look into the dynamics step by step. The dynamics today allow us to think that we are in balance, that we must always keep in mind all the balances, because there can be no medicine more harmful than the disease itself. This would make no sense. We need to give people the opportunity to go to work, to breathe, to go out and breathe fresh air. The most recent researches are really alarming when it comes to the psychological effects on people because of this whole story of restrictions and visible and invisible traumas. Therefore, we all need to maintain this balance with everyone having to provide their contribution.
– Last week you hinted at plans on a health system reform to grant autonomy to hospitals. However, do you think this reform would suffice, or a much profound reform is needed to eradicate bribery in health system? As of today, people have been forced to apply for bank loans in order to pay surgical intervention costs.
PM Edi Rama: What do you mean by saying that people have applied for bank loans in order to pay surgical intervention costs?
– I am also taking notice of the most recent cases at the COVID-designated hospitals, where wiretaps showing that citizens are asked to pay bribes in exchange of a health care service. Do you think that the reform to grant autonomy to hospitals, as you announced last week, would stave off bribery or a much deeper reform is needed?
PM Edi Rama: Which this deeper reform would be? First of all, the good news is that there are a number of encouraging signs that new justice institutions are starting to work and I am referring to the case concerning that liberal rightist doctors, who claimed that “it was Edi Rama the one who sent him to prison,” as he unfortunately said. Very unfortunately, but, on the other hand, the good news is that reporting these cases is working. So I would be most happy at seeing such cases be reported every day and not speculations that stain doctors and nurses, who are real heroes.
I am convinced that Tirja or the doctor in question, the right-wing liberal who was also the head of the ward, among other things, clearly shows that we do not deal with the right or the left, but respect the profession, but they should be held accountable, but how does this happen?
This is done on both rails; one rail is that the system should keep strengthened and the reform that I announced is the right reform and it is very profound, because it completely changes funds and hospitals management and the way how performance within the system is assessed. This has been already confirmed by the same success models in many countries. But let’s consider Turkey’s health system that has also faced the Tire-like problems. Turkey has made an epochal leap, after following the same path we are about to embark on, because we have learned by considering the examples in Turkey and other countries. You cannot deliver on deep reforms, such as hospital autonomy, when you lack medicines, when you lack blankets, when you lack uniforms for doctors and nurses, when you have no bathrooms in hospitals, when hospitals lack heating systems. You can’t do such a reform.
You should build the infrastructure first; you should build the chains of service so that you can then move to the next stage. Only then we would be ready for such a reform. They are separate phases. This would make doctors and nurses at public hospitals feel at home, which means they would be motivated to deliver maximum performance, because their salaries would also increase significantly given the way how the hospitals’ financial management will change. Of course, we have increased the doctors’ and nurses’ wages significantly, yet the pay hike is not enough.
On the other hand, the way the hospital economy works makes the control over the whole performance of the medical personnel be much stronger and such phenomena are drastically reduced. But the other track is denunciation. The citizens who face Tire-like individuals should made a clear and right choice, that instead of paying bribes to them, they should immediately raise the alarm and report the abuse cases involving anyone in the health system. And they can report them to the Ministry of Health, the State Police, and the Prosecutor’s Office, the investigative and non-investigative media. Everyone should act by reporting any of these cases so that an environment that is suffocating for these monsters, who should not be allowed to suck the blood of people. Reform and the system is what I believe. But while the system takes its time to build, the other track is irreplaceable. Individuals like Tire have traditionally existed and they are not the today’s phenomenon, and their number has been much higher in the past, but today we thankfully live in a different era, when the ways of communication are exponentially more numerous, more accessible to all, when everyone has a kind of “spy” in their pocket and use it to communicate what is happening to them and where the media is willing to act in this regard. So I am confident that the path is right and the battle does not end easily. It is a battle that takes its time.
I am concluding by saying that situation when it comes to the quantity of vaccine doses is the one we are all witnessing today. But as we learned last month, there are many surprises on this path and such surprises do not depend on us. What we said about COVAX is as it is today, but can you guess what they mean by saying that 25 to 30% of the vaccine doses will be delivered now and the rest, later. So, nothing should be taken for granted. What you should take for granted is that we are intensely communicating in order to secure a considerable quantity of the vaccines that would allow to start the mass vaccination process sooner rather than later and speed up the process to reach Serbia’s pace, since it is a country in the region, or Greece, which lies on the other side, without wasting more time.
We want to see a decreasing trend in fresh COVID cases. We are working on that day and night. Realistically, not metaphorically, because when this side of the world falls asleep, it is the other side that is awake and from all sides, with contacts, with communications, etc. we have reason to be optimistic. We will hopefully receive new confirming news this or next week. However, everything can change all of a sudden, because this is like the stock exchanges that go up and down.
It is important to continue vaccinating and complete the vaccine rollout for the doctors and nurses, and then start with the older adults.
Thank you!
