The Algerian government is scheduled to discuss on Saturday to reinstate a lockdown, three weeks after it began easing measures taken to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
The health ministry said Friday it recorded 240 new COVID-19 cases the day before, the country's highest daily tally since the pandemic began.
Djamel Fourar, the spokesman for the ministry's scientific committee monitoring the pandemic, said Algeria has recorded a total of 12,695 cases of the COVID-19 disease, including 885 deaths, making it the worst-affected country in the Maghreb.
The committee will meet under the chairmanship of the heath minister. It will then refer its report to the Prime Minister, who is solely entitled to decide on a possible lockdown.
The latest data show an outbreak of infections in the east and southeast of the country.
This is the result of people not respecting social distancing measures and not wearing masks, a member of the committee told Asharq Al-Awsat.
Doctors and nurses in coronavirus wards are under heavy pressure.
Shukri Murad, a nurse at a public clinic in southern Algeria, said in a phone call that his facility has received 20 coronavirus patients in the past 24 hours.
The medical team is incapable of dealing with this number of patients, he said.
Some businesses in Algeria were allowed to reopen on June 7 as part of a government roadmap for a flexible and progressive return to normal.
The second phase of lockdown easing began on June 14, when limited urban transport resumed.
Faced with the surge in cases, the government has decided to maintain a curfew until June 29 in 29 of Algeria's 48 provinces, including that of Algiers.
