Algeria becomes Africa’s worst affected country as fears grow over impact on continent
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3079676/coronavirus-algeria-becomes-africas-worst-affected-country-fearsSpecial feature story about Algeria
Algeria is a predominantly Muslim country of North Africa with a population of 44 million. The most populous city Algiers is the capital. Since the breakup of Sudan in 2011, Algeria becomes the largest country in Africa.
It was once a breadbasket of the Roman Empire, and some of the best preserved Roman ruins can still be found in Djémila, near the north coast of Algiers.
In the early 8th century, Arab Muslim conquered Algeria, with negligible resistance from the locals. The various dynasties ruled until the 16th century.
There was a brief period of independence until 1830 when France launched a war of conquest, and captured Algiers. The conquest took some time and resulted in considerable bloodshed.
Algeria gained complete independence in March 1962. Although the influence of the French language and culture in Algeria remained strong, since independence the country consistently has sought to regain its Arab and Islamic heritage.
On 31 March 2020, I chatted with a member from Algiers, there were 511 cases, and 31 deaths, but on 21 April, the statistics shows 2811 cases, 392 deaths.
Algeria is worse hit than its North African neighbours Tunisia and Morocco.
Coronavirus pandemic was confirmed to have spread to Algeria in February 2020.
On 4 April, Algeria's President announced various measures to fight the virus, including the closure of schools and borders, and imposed curfew between 3pm and 7am in the capital Algiers and eight other provinces, and between 7pm and 7am in most of the others.
Algeria had inadequate numbers of physicians. Its public healthcare system, run down for decades due to dysfunctional bureaucracy and remain poor.
About 99% of Algerians living in urban areas, but only 82% of those living in rural areas, had access to "improved sanitation" and running water.
Although France has maintained close relationship with former colony, Algeria gets help against coronavirus pandemic from trade partner China.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Algeria, the Chinese government and enterprises have provided several batches of medical supplies for Algeria.
Nearly 20 tons of supplies included medical masks, testing kits, ventilators and other medical equipment onboard a plane arrived at Algiers International Airport on 21 April, Tuesday night to help the Algeria contain the spread of the COVID-19.
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