NEWS OF THE DAY: First coronavirus case confirmed in the country
Minister of Health Venko Filipce today at a press conference in the Government confirmed that the first case of the novel coronavirus has been registered in Macedonia. It concerns a patient born in 1970 in Skopje, who had spent one month in Italy and immediately after arriving in Macedonia had went to the Infectious Diseases Clinic, after being ill for two weeks. She was travelling by van, through the Tabanovce border crossing, and then the people from the van had been transferred with another domestic vehicle from the toll ramp Tabanovce to the Skopje clinic.
The patient has been hospitalized in the early morning in the Infectious Diseases Clinic in Skopje, in the isolation unit. She is being treated accordingly, and the epidemiological analyses indicate that she had been in Italy for a month and had been ill for two weeks, initially being treated in Italy. There she was not tested for coronavirus – said Minister Filipce.
– This gives us the right to consider that the incubation has long passed and that during the transportation she was of no threat to spread the disease, but we are acting according to all protocols and all passengers who have travelled with her will be identified, tested and placed in a 14-day isolation – added Filipce.
Dr. Zarko Karadzovski stated that a professional team of the Institute for Public Health immediately went to the Infectious and Diseases Clinic to conduct an epidemiological survey and to inspect the persons.
“One positive person does not pose a risk to the rest of the population. I am sending out a reassuring message that there is no room for panic. We are ready to mobilize a team in half an hour, and what is important to me is that we are in control of the situation. We cannot prevent transfer of people, goods, money and capital, but we do have control over the situation”, he said.
Karadzoski stated that the border police is acting according to protocols, more specifically, all persons entering the country are asked 6 epidemiological questions, and if they indicate that they have certain symptoms of the disease, then those persons are taken aside. In the meanwhile, the epidemiological service that is on duty at the Skopje Airport is performing thermal camera scanning and is conducting an epidemiological survey, while persons with symptoms of the disease are taken to an isolated room.
Prime Minister Oliver Spasovski sent a reassuring message, saying that there is no reason for panic.
“All state services are fully prepared, there is no reason for panic, since control has been established and all measures according to protocols have been taken. We are moving on to the next phase of handling the situation. Citizens need to adhere to the recommendation of the Ministry of Health, whereas the institutions have professional staff and equipment”, stated Spasovski.
FLASH: VMRO-DPMNE’s bad luck
Xhabir Deralla: The counter protest was organized and led by well-known figures, most of them with charges and investigations for serious crimes. Three fingers, nationalism, Vergini, Zaev-Zaev-and-Zaev in Mickoski’s long and boring speech, a gloomy atmosphere, attendance, according to estimations, less than that of SDSM…
POLITICALLY OK CORALL: Pre-election preparations and guidelines to citizens
The citizens of the Republic of North Macedonia are facing yet another election process. As of today, they will have insight into the Voters Register, while the responsible institutions urge citizens to check their data and to report any irregularities.
NOT LESS IMPORTANT:
The last amendments to the Law on Audio and Audiovisual Media Services were adopted in an exceptionally non-transparent manner, in a process that was not inclusive and one right before the adoption of the Decision for the dissolution of parliament and the Decision for announcing early parliamentary elections, reacted today the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services, following the announcement that the operators will stop broadcasting domestic and foreign channels.
Minister of Information Society and |Administration Damjan Mancevski urged for reason and called for a dialogue with the cable operators. From the Association of Information and Communication Technologies, they replied that they are ready for a dialogue with all stakeholders.
The Association of Information and Communication Technologies, in reaction to today’s press conference of the Macedonian Media Association, state that they mostly strongly condemn, as they say, the unfounded accusations stated by members of MMA- Sitel, Telma, Kanal 5, Alfa and Alsat – M and announce appropriate court procedures.
The request of the five television stations for restrictions to be imposed by law for broadcasting of foreign channels in the country means direct violation to the Directive for broadcasting and the Directive for “Television Without Frontiers” and is an attempt for introducing censorship, is said in the reaction. Such publically expressed opinion by MMA clearly indicates that the motives and ultimate goal for such quick adoption of the amendments to the Law on Audio and Audiovisual Media Services were precisely due to the pressure with this law to reduce the number of TV channels that will broadcast in the country.
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Wreaths of flowers were laid at the grave and monuments of former President Boris Trajkovski on the 16th anniversary from his death.
A government delegation led by Minister of Information Society and Administration Damjan Mancevski, along with Minister of Education and Science Arber Ademi and Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy Trajan Dimkovski, laid flowers at the grave of President Trajkovski at the Butel City Cemetery in Skopje.
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In the Basic Criminal Court in Skopje a hearing was held today for the court process for the organizers of the April 27th violence in Parliament. The court process is at the beginning, while the last hearing was postponed in order for the defendants to inspect the evidence in the case.
“The Prosecutor’s Office will prove that the defendants who are sitting in this courtroom have prepared a plan, with the intention to endanger the constitutional order and security of the state, with acts of violence to prevent peaceful handover of power as a result of the event that took place on April 27, known as “bloody Thursday”, is part of the indictment that prosecutor Vilma Ruskoska read today in the courtroom at the hearing for the court process for the organizers of the April 27th violence.
CIVIL ACTIVITIES
Given the great interest, as well as the opportunities to increase the size of the election monitoring, CIVIL invites all of its members, supporters and participants of seminars on citizen journalism, observers of previous elections, as well as all interested citizens to apply for short-term election observers.
Officials and activists of political parties do not have the right to participate in this call. It is also not allowed for one to be an observer of two organizations at the same time.
In the process of selection of observers, as always, CIVIL’s members and supporters, former observers, as well as those who have participated in seminars on citizen journalism, have an advantage.
FREE ZONE
“If it doesn’t kill us, the virus will make us stronger!” is the title of today’s column of Saso Ordanoski, who among else writes – “Logically, the next thing will be to cancel all pre-election political gatherings, rallies, protests, marches… What an unplanned, extraordinary beauty! In combination with the announced threat for cancelling the broadcasting of all domestic television stations on cable operators, Macedonia is suddenly becoming a much more decent place for living! Well, that’s what you call caring for the health of the nation”.
Zoran Ivanov from a corner reflected on the pre-election activities of the political parties in the column “On the same path but in the opposite direction”. What is unique is that despite all the promises before the citizens and after all the transitions and ordeals, SDSM and VMRO-DPMNE as most responsible political entities for the functioning of everything, of literally everything in the country, couldn’t find the least bit of conscience and bit of mutual political will to let the judiciary professionally settle itself. If their goal is the same, instead of on the streets, instead of marching with irreconcilable concepts, it would have been more normal to put the marching on the table. To do it together, in a politically responsible way”.
Diana Tahiri
in cooperation with: Маја Ivanovska
