The new Algerian Prime Minister Amene Benbader Rahman on Saturday isolated himself for seven days after testing positive for Covid-19, his services announced in a statement.

Mr Benbader Rahman “tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday”, according to this press release which specifies that he will “wait to redo a test of screening at the end of this period, seven days from today”. is imprisoned for”.

“The prime minister will continue to work remotely and fulfill his mission,” his office says.

Algeria crossed the 800 daily contamination mark on Friday for the first time since November 2020, while the health crisis in the most populous country in the Maghreb (44 million residents) is expected to worsen.

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Saturday chaired a meeting of the scientific committee to monitor the development of the pandemic, during which it was decided to “strongly reactivate” preventive measures and accelerate the rate of vaccination, the president said in a statement. said in the statement.

Mr. Tebboune, 75, himself contracted COVID-19 in late 2020 and was hospitalized in Germany for several months.

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Contamination numbers have been increasing rapidly for several weeks, with the spread of delta and alpha variants.

Concerned, doctors are raising calls to respect barrier gestures and vaccinations.

Tents have been set up in various districts of the capital, which record the most contamination, to vaccinate the population.

A vaccination campaign was also launched on Friday in 13 mosques in Algiers.

Since the first case was reported on February 25, 2020, Algeria has recorded more than 145,000 cases, including nearly 4,000 deaths.