Ignoring the virus and denying its existence won’t help anyone. Those that behave responsibly and are abiding by the measures, should serve as an example to others. The restrictions are undesirable and we will be able to avoid them only if we behave in a disciplined manner, said the Health Minister Venko Filipche during today’s press conference when he announced that in the last 24 hours there were 67 newly infected people with COVID-19 and one patient passed away.
“The same measures are implemented everywhere around the world in order to protect the population and to lower the risk,” said the minister.
Regarding the possibility of putting certain municipalities in Skopje under lockdown, Filipche said he hopes there might be a possibility to avoid that.
“Health authorities will analyze the number of infected people in the forthcoming days, places of origin, and on basis of that, this Thursday, a decision will be made whether or if certain municipalities will be going under lockdown,” said Filipche. The families that are interviewed in some of Skopje’s municipalities and the region of Kumanovo are known to the authorities.
Concerning the ways of imposing the restrictive measures, he stressed that in a city as big as Skopje, to impose lockdown measures as in Debar will be more difficult. “So far, no such decision has been made and I believe there is still an opportunity to be avoided, ” said the minister.
He informed that at the municipality of Chair, the total number of contacts made by the infected are within a frame of 10 families. Interviews with these people are underway, the people are put into isolation, and tests are made following the risks”.
“Out of 868 conducted tests, in the last 24 hours, there are 67 positive patients, one deceased and 25 recovered patients. Until this morning, 6 patients were received at the Clinic for Infectious Diseases, and the total number of hospitalized people is 40. The “8th of September” hospital has 27 people hospitalized, out of which 6 were put to a ventilator. In Bitola, 7 patients were hospitalized, and in Štip 14″ said Filipche.