TIRANA - Albania and Bulgaria reported the first deaths from the novel coronavirus in the Balkans on Wednesday, as one of Europe's poorest regions braces for the spread of the virus that is wreaking havoc across the globe.
Only another 11 people are known to have been infected in Albania so far, but the country is considered vulnerable because it lies just across the Adriatic from Italy -- the center of Europe's outbreak -- and has a huge diaspora living there.
After the death of a 73-year-old woman in the coastal city of Durres was reported on Wednesday, Prime Minister Edi Rama quickly announced that all bars, restaurants and clubs in Durres and in the capital Tirana would be shut.
Writing on Facebook, Rama "apologized for taking this action".
"This is not a time for holidays and entertainment, but a time of war," he wrote, saying it was necessary to "radically change the way of life" in order to protect others.
The woman who died had "several chronic illnesses", according to a statement from the Ministry of Health.
"The doctors and nurses who took care of the woman at the Durres hospital have been quarantined and are all to be tested," the health authorities added.
In Bulgaria, a 66-year-old woman died in Sofia on Wednesday, a day after being hospitalized and diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, the country's health ministry said in a statement.
The patient had chronic heart problems and had previously undergone heart surgery and was already suffering from double pneumonia when she was admitted to hospital.
Her 74-year-old husband, who has also been diagnosed with the new coronavirus, is in critical condition.
The couple had not traveled anywhere, and it remains unclear where they contracted the virus.
Bulgaria, which has a population of seven million, has so far recorded just seven cases in total, including the couple.
Shows in concert halls, theaters and cinemas have been canceled, while Sofia University has scrapped classes until March 15.
INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC
Last week, Bulgaria declared a nationwide influenza epidemic, closing schools and banning planned surgeries as authorities warned hospitals were already full, potentially jeopardizing preparedness for any spreading of the coronavirus.
After detecting its first infections earlier this week, Albania moved quickly to close school classes and bar mass gatherings for two weeks.
Flights and ferries to Italy, where more than 600 people have died from the virus, have also been canceled, as have parliamentary sessions and court trials.
So far, authorities have recorded more than 50 infections of COVID-19 in the Western Balkans, a region which also includes Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo.
But the number of those tested has also been limited to several hundred or fewer in each country.
As the contagion sweeps Europe, Balkan governments have issued a slew of new restrictions, including a move by Serbia to temporarily ban entry of foreign nationals coming from zones in the hardest-hit countries like Italy, China, South Korea and Iran.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
Media and residents stand on a collapsed building after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake in Thumane, western Albania, Tuesday. Rescue crews with excavators searched for survivors trapped in toppled apartment buildings and hotels Tuesday as the death toll from a powerful pre-dawn earthquake in Albania climbed to 21, with more than 600 people injured.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
TIRANA - At least four people died after the most powerful earthquake to hit Albania in decades rocked the capital of Tirana and surrounding region early on Tuesday, causing several buildings to collapse and burying residents in the rubble.
The 6.4-magnitude quake struck shortly before 4 a.m. local time (0300 GMT), the US Geological Survey (USGS) said, the second powerful tremor to hit the region in two months.
It was centered 30 kilometers west of Tirana, at a shallow depth of 10 kms, the USGS said.
Two women were found in the rubble of an apartment building in the northern village of Thumane, and a man died in the town of Kurbin after panicking and jumping out of a building, a Defense Ministry spokeswoman said.
A dead body, the fourth victim of the earthquake, was pulled out from under a collapsed building in Durres, the defense ministry confirmed.
Emergency workers told local media one of those killed was an elderly woman who had managed to save her grandson by cradling him with her body.
Unverified video footage posted on social media showed what appeared to be a collapsed building in Durres, 40 kms west of Tirana, on the Adriatic coast. Other footage showed buildings with large cracks and fallen masonry, including one apartment with most of a bedroom wall missing.
"Firefighters and army staff are helping residents (caught) under the rubble" in Durres and the nearby village of Thumane, the Defense Ministry spokeswoman told reporters.
An unidentified man, with a wound dressing on his right cheek, told News24 TV his daughter and niece were among those trapped in a collapsed apartment building in Durres.
"I talked with my daughter and niece on the phone. They said they are well and are waiting for the rescue. Could not talk to my wife. There are other families, but I could not talk to them," the man said.
Two government spokesmen told Reuters the biggest damage to buildings was in Durres and a few people had been taken to hospital in Tirana.
A Reuters witness described residents fleeing apartment buildings in Tirana, some carrying babies. Power was down in several neighborhoods.
Three hours after the main tremor, a strong aftershock rocked the city, which is known for its colorful mix of architecture from its Ottoman, Fascist and Soviet past.
Several smaller tremors were recorded in the hour before the main quake, which was also felt across the Balkans and in the southern Italian region of Puglia.
"We were awake because of the previous quakes, but the last one shook us around. Everything at home kept falling down," Refik, a Tirana resident, told Reuters of what happened in his sixth-floor apartment.
Located along the Adriatic and Ionian Seas, between Greece and Macedonia, Albania experiences regular seismic activity.
An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.6 shook the country on Sept. 21, damaging around 500 houses and destroying some. The defense ministry had said it was the most powerful quake in Albania in the last 30 years.
The images of collapsed or semi-collapsed buildings in urban areas suggested Tuesday's quake was more powerful than one in 1979, which razed a neighborhood of the northern town of Shkoder, bordering Montenegro. Neither of those two earlier earthquakes caused any fatalities.
The Balkan nation is the poorest country in Europe, with an average income of less than a third of the European Union average, according to Eurostat data.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
TIRANA, Albania - A strong earthquake hit Albania Saturday afternoon, forcing residents into the street in several cities, causing power cuts in the capital and collapsing some buildings in a nearby village.
The epicenter of the quake, with a magnitude of 5.6 and a depth of 10 kilometers, was near Durres, less than 40 kilometers west of the capital Tirana, according to the US Geological Survey.
According to early media reports, at least two people were lightly injured and a dozen houses collapsed in the village of Helmes some 10 kilometres from Tirana.
Windows broke and fissures appeared on buildings in Durres, as well as in the capital, local media reported.
Electricity and telephone lines were cut off in Tirana and a number of other towns and villages, media reports said.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
TIRANA - Six earthquakes in the space of two hours, the first with a magnitude of 5.3, shook southeastern Albania on Saturday, injuring five people and causing damage to five houses, the Defense Ministry and local media reported.
Five people were hurt when a house collapsed, one local media outlet reported, while Albanian authorities said they were monitoring the situation after the quake and aftershocks.
"No extraordinary situation has been reported in any district of the country," Albania's Defense Ministry said.
The first earthquake had its epicenter 15 kms southeast of the town of Korce at a depth of 14 kms and was followed by another seven minutes later at a depth of 18 kms in an area bordering Greece and North Macedonia.
Lower intensity tremors continued in Korce and the southern area of Gjirokaster, on the border with northern Greece.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
