On Tuesday, Algeria announced it would cancel a range of events including political gatherings as a precaution against the spread of the new Coronavirus.
“All sports, cultural, political gatherings are called off. All exhibitions and fairs are cancelled. We’re taking no risks,” Health Minister Abderahmane Benbouzid announced.
Algeria has 20 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 17 members of the same family linked to confirmed cases of Algerian nationals in France with the disease.
The ministers said football matches could go ahead but only behind closed doors.
“It’s official, these are recommendations that will be confirmed by the youth and sports ministry,” the health minister told a forum in Algiers organised by a government newspaper.
“The president (Abdelmadjid Tebboune) has instructed us to ban all gatherings, including at stadiums,” he said.
“We are still at phase one, a fact-finding and surveillance phase. We’ve started to build up a stock of masks and medication. It’s an advantage for us to start early when we have only 20 cases.”
