Health Minister Venko FIlipche said on Friday that it’s still early to stop wearing face masks outside, but added that the Commission for Infectious Diseases will discuss the topic next week.

“The topic was introduced on Monday and we’ll continue to talk about it next week. We have to analyze the positions of other countries and the situation at home. A lot of citizens are failing to abide by this measures, especially in parks. Personally, I think it’s still early. We have to increase vaccination rate, but also, the measure has to make sense and have in mind warmer weather, etc.,” said Filipche.

Moreover, he told reporters that wearing face masks outside should be made optional, before discussing no masks inside for people who have been fully vaccinated, all the while abiding by experts’ advice.

“That could be the next stop, but I don’t know when such a recommendation could be issued. However, it’s still too early to recommend not wearing masks inside. Personally, I think that we’ll listen to what expert epidemiologists and the Commission of Infectious Diseases say and keep this recommendation in place,” the Health Minister added.

He underlined that the British coronavirus variant is predominant in North Macedonia, with isolated cases of other strains also detected.

“Definitely, the predominant virus variant is the British one. Obviously, there are other isolated cases. The South African strain was detected in a citizen from Delchevo, a truck driver travelling through Western Europe, who was infected in March. However, isolated cases show that no other variant is predominant. In order for another strain to become dominant it has to be easily transmissible. Obviously, that’s not the case,” Filipche noted.

According to him, analysis shows that neither the South African nor the Brazilian COVID-19 variant can become more dominant than the British, which means that the current wave has been put under control, despite isolated cases of other variants appearing.