As the coronavirus began to spread in Algeria, activists from the popular movement, known as Hirak, debated whether to keep marching or whether to pivot the Hirak campaign to focus on the issue of the pandemic, the protection of the Algerian people and online campaigning. But the Hirak movement now finds itself fighting a media war with the state.
With 1,320 diagnosed cases and 152 deaths as of April 5, it seems that Algeria is in the acceleration phase of the outbreak, but the government has only been rolling out confinement region by region.