TIRANA, March 12 (Xinhua) -- The Albanian government has decided to stop the circulation of all public and private vehicles, starting from Friday morning up to midnight Sunday, as a preventive measure against the spread of the novel coronavirus, Prime Minister Edi Rama announced here on Thursday.
Via a video message on Facebook, Rama said his government decided to take additional measures "in order to protect every citizen, every family and Albania itself from COVID-19 spread."
Albanian Police and Military forces, which are on the streets from Wednesday evening, are in charge to supervise the implementation of the measures.
Part of the additional measures is the stop of circulation of interurban transport vehicles, private vehicles from the capital city Tirana to the port city of Durres and vice versa, as well as towards other areas of the country.
The same measure will be extended to the other six cities -- Shkoder, Lezhe, Elbasan, Lushnje, Fier and Vlora.
Ardi Veliu, Albanian police general director, told reporters that police have stopped over 120 people with travel history to Italy and other affected countries who have not put themselves in self-quarantine as asked by the authorities.
Anyone who breaks the self-quarantine of 14 days in Albania -- a preventive measure announced on Monday -- will get a fine of 5,000 euros (5,655 U.S. dollars) and will not be allowed to travel abroad without paying the fine.
On Thursday, citizens across the country received a text message on their mobile phones from the prime minister, which read "Please wash your hands often. Don't move from home for pleasure. Open the windows. Protect yourself from fake news. Fear not, but be very careful."
Deputy Minister of Health and Social Protection Mira Rakacolli said by Thursday there are eight new cases of coronavirus infections in Albania, bringing the total to 23 confirmed cases.
According to Rakacolli, among the confirmed cases, five are hospitalized in Tirana in the Infectious Disease Hospital and their conditions are stable while the other 18 are self-isolating at home without any particular problems.
All cases have had travel history in Italy, according to the Albanian health ministry.
