North Macedonia Reimposes Long Curfews as COVID Cases Spike

After another worrying peak in infections over the past few days, North Macedonia has ordered a full 80-hour lockdown of the capital, Skopje, and the towns of Tetovo, Kumanovo and Stip. Curfews there will start at 9 pm on Thursday and last until 5 am on Monday.

The same tough measures will apply to the rural municipalities of Lipkovo, Bogovinje, Brvenica, Tearce, Zhelino, Jegunovce and Karbinci.

In the rest of the country, the government has reintroduced previously scrapped evening curfews, which start at 9 pm and end in the early morning.

On Wednesday, the country registered a worrying new peak of 101 infections, which was close to the previous peak of 107 infections recorded on April 16, which many thought would not be repeated.

The Public Health Institute on Thursday told the media that the number of new cases in the past 24 hours had already reached 110, with the possibility of a further rise during the day as more test results become available.

Following criticism that the government prematurely scrapped curfews and reopened restaurants in late May - and turned a blind eye to mass gatherings during the recent religious holidays of Orthodox Easter and Ramadan - Health Minister Venko Filipce on Wednesday avoided taking direct responsibility.

He blamed the sharp resurgence of COVID-19 cases over the past week, after the country reduced the number of daily infections to single digit figures, on "loosening discipline" among citizens. He also accused the Interior Ministry of not properly policing respect for safety measures on the ground.

The Interior Ministry is led by Nake Culev, from the ranks of the main opposition VMRO DPMNE party, while Filipce was appointed by the main ruling Social Democrats.

They both serve...

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