30 New Cases of COVID-19 in past 24 Hours

Health Minister Venko Filipce reported at a press conference in the government that in the past 24 hours 30 new cases of COVID-19 were registered in the country, with which their number now increased to 384. If counted by cities, so far 195 cases are registered in Skopje, 62 in Kumanovo, 47 in Debar, 21 in Prilep, 15 in Stip, 13 in Tetovo, 9 in Struga, 6 in Veles, 4 in Bitola, 3 in Ohrid, 2 in Kavadarci, Gevgelija and Kriva Palanka and 1 in Strumica, Gostivar and Kocani. Later on Thursday, the Public Healthcare Institute reported that the test made on the baby born by a COVID-19 positive woman from Kumanovo turned out negative. Commenting on the approaches of the Public Healthcare Institute in the procedures for testing people for COVID-19, Filipce said that so far 4,117 COVID-19 tests were made, adding it is the highest average per million citizens in the Balkan region. “Only Slovenia has made more tests than us. In global terms, North Macedonia is in the top 30-40, which is an excellent result. Let me highlight that it is not only the number of tests but the entire approach of identifying patients, their contacts, clusters of patients etc. When it comes to the testing methods, a positive patient is considered the one having a virus presence after a test, but not considering antibody tests. The antibody tests only set the suspicion that someone has the virus, and an additional test for the presence of the virus is required,” Filipce said.