Albania declared the coronavirus a “natural calamity” on Wednesday, giving the authorities 30-day emergency powers to search houses, stop free movement and ban strikes in an effort to break the chain of an outbreak that has killed five so far.

Axar.az reports citing foreign media.

Albania has forbidden internal travel and confined people to their homes since detecting its first coronavirus infection in a early March in a man who had arrived from Italy.

“The government decided to declare a state of natural calamity in the Republic of Albania due to the epidemic caused by COVID-19,” the government said in a statement.