# 11 LATEST Covid-19 UPDATES AND EVENTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY as of Monday, 23rdMarch, 2020 20h

MINISTRY OF HEALTH
• The Minister said that stayathome is paying off and is braking the spread of the disease in the community.
• 629 face homemade masks have already been made and given to the Government.
They won’t be used for medical purposes.

LATEST UPDATE ON C19 PATIENTS IN ANDORRA.
131 positives of which 44 are healthcare professionals and increase of 19 from yesterday.
19 are in hospital and 112 are in quarantine at home.
3 are positive in ICU and 3 more are in ICU awaiting results.
8 from El Cedre are positive.
2 now negative and healed.

THE GOVERNMENT
• The Government spokesman, Eric Jove, used today’s midday press conference to give a careful and exhaustive explanation of the Exceptional Measures Act for the Emergency Situation of Health caused by the Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 “The text seeks to protect the salaried workers, the weakest link” (For those that wish to know all the details about the new laws they can visit https://twitter.com/GovernAndorra?s=09 and www.govern.ad .
• The Omnibus law, which has just been approved by the Consell General (parliament) guarantees payment of 100% of the salary for those employees considered essential and who are off-sick due to COVID-19. Salary pay will be 66% from day one for the rest of the workers off sick.
• There is a new telephone number for business inquiries: 180
• The Cap de Govern, Xavier Espot, said that, in recent days, the government has talked with the Co-princes (who will need to sign the legislation into law) to inform them of how the legislative procedure is progressing. “All we have said is that we understand that it would be advisable for the two laws to take effect as soon as
possible.”
• The spokesman, Eric Jover has announced that the Government is working on a new decree to prolong the exceptional limitations on activities and measures to close things down.
• The spokesman believes that the economic measures will be sufficient to cover the self-employed.
• 77 workers who have been laid off, have already registered in the Government register, 35 of whom are from the hospitality industry. All cases will be reviewed.
• The police have 4 new files on those not complying with the employment decree, bringing them to a total of 24.
• Thanks to the collaboration between the Ministry of Education and Andorra Telecom 90 tablets have been delivered to pupils from the country’s three educational systems, and more than 30 pupils now have internet at home.
• Jover said that traffic “continues to decline”. Thus, the national traffic has decreased by 80% compared to a normal day and the percentages range from 80 to 95% across the country’s borders.
OTHER
• Destil·leries Andorra are delivering bottles of 96º alcohol to the pharmacies for disinfectants.
TWEETS from Comuns.

ESCALDES-ENGORDANY
• A group of traffic agents from Escaldes-Engordany started dancing in the streets on Monday to encourage people confined in their homes by coronavirus

• They also wanted to thank the neighbours for showing them support. Many of the videos went
viral through WhatsApp.

INTERNATIONAL
• Contact is being established with financial institutions such as the IMF, the European
Central Bank, the banks of Spain and France, and the development bank of the
Council of Europe.

UNOFFICIAL FEEDBACK
Teaching online from home. With all the schools closed teachers are struggling to teach online. As one friend wrote “With a child at home it is almost impossible. They have their own needs and homework, plus snacks, lunch, snack etc. Last week I was sending my class homework and receiving and correcting it. This week we have to do online sessions for an hour and then send them homework. The head of studies set up a time for the class to meet via Zoom (similar to Skype), or be connected online and chat. I’d rather do Zoom because
then I can see them. They may be a pain sometimes but I do miss them.

Culturally yours,

Clare.

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Look for about the author of the blog Clare Allcard

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Look here for the whole blog “Cultural events in Andorra with Clare Allcard”

 

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