NEWS OF THE DAY: Filipce: Deputy Finance Minister Dimitrievska-Kocoska is blocking funds for equipping the clinics for dealing with COVID-19
Additional Deputy Minister of Finance Gordana Dimitrievska-Kocoska, for about a month now, is blocking the project for dealing with the coronavirus worth 90 million euros, funds from the World Bank which, among else, are intended for intensive care beds in all infectious diseases units in the country, for laboratory capacities…
Minister of Health Venko Filipce stated this for MIA, at the same time informing that Dimitrievska-Kocoska has several times sent requests to the Ministry of Health requesting explanation on what the funds will be used for, and has been replied the same number of times. According to Filipce, the questions of the Deputy Minister of Finance keep repeating, and with her action of delaying, the funds for the health system, namely, for urgent support for strengthening the capacities for treatment of Covid-19 patients, are not being approved.
“The funds that have been approved, but are not approved by Dimitrovska-Kocoska, will help us equip all infectious diseases units in the country, primarily with intensive care beds, medical imaging machines, laboratory capacities and more. There is one part of the funds intended for education of physicians, for upgrading of epidemiological centers with complete equipment, that is, these funds are for all aspects that the Covid virus covers”, explained Filipce. STATEMENT OF THE DAY: Angelovska: Chulev proposed a cut in the budget of the MOI, before he proposed awards for police officers
“I must say that Minister of Interior Nakje Chulev was really cooperative when the budget rebalance was being made, and he submitted a proposal for a reduction of 88 million denars in the MOI. That proposal was effected and I have to say that this time, in this rebalance we set standards and a concept with which the Ministry of Finance did not make any reductions on its own. All reductions, all reallocations and changes are at the request of the budget beneficiaries. The proposal does not correspond to the request that had been submitted while the rebalance was being designed. Two days after a prepared rebalance, we all have to be realistic. I believe that all government members know the real possibilities and that every single one and this government will make efforts to reward all those who have deserved, when we will have complete control over the virus, everyone will receive a reward and what they have deserved”, said Minister of Finance Nina Angelovska.
WITHOUT FILTER: Urgent question for Nakje Chulev
video column by Xhabir Deralla
Unanswered questions are like unsolved murders. They keep coming back. Constantly tormenting the one who didn’t solve the murders, that is, didn’t answer the questions.
For today, we have several really urgent questions that we want to ask Mr. Nakje Chulev, Technical Minister of Interior.
STATE OF EMERGENCY
Over the past 24 hours, 549 tests have been performed, 40 new COVID-19 cases have been registered.
– Skopje 26, Kumanovo 1, Prilep 1, Tetovo 10, Veles 1 and Bitola 1.
So far, a total of 22,316 tests for COVID-19 have been conducted in the country. Of the total number of tests performed in the past 24 hours, 209 tests are within the screening. Today, 1 kindergarten employee in Skopje tested positive.
The Institute for Public Health today registered 11 recovered patients.
– Skopje 2, Stip 1, Prilep 4, Veles 2 and Kocani 2.
At the Clinic for Infectious Diseases in Skopje, a 56-year-old patient from Prilep died, who had been treated at the Clinic from May 12.
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At the Clinic for Infectious Diseases in Skopje, five patients treated with blood plasma have recovered.
“I am pleased that all the efforts, measures, care for the health of the patients are giving results. All public health care facilities are up to the task. We have shown professionalism, preparedness and mobilization for protection against this unknown disease. Because of all this, we did not burden our health system. We have more recovered patients than infected. Let’s continue applying the recommendations”, said Filipce.
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The Institute for Transfusion Medicine today put into operation a new cell separator for plasmapheresis. The Institute has bought this machine from its own funds and will be used during this period for donating convalescent plasma.
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Gathering of people in groups and not complying to the measures also in the Tetovo region, is the reason for the drastic rise of the number of COVID-19 cases and for the new clusters. This is how epidemiology specialist Naim Skenderi from the Center for Public Health in Tetovo characterized the large number of new cases.
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30 people of the 38 who have disobeyed the ban on movement in the past 24 hours have been detained. Appropriate measures will follow for eight of them.
The MOI informs that the police have also registered 81 violations in regards to the measure for wearing personal protective equipment. In the past 24 hours, 210 people on the territory of the Republic of North Macedonia have been issued decisions for isolation, and seven people have signed statements for self-isolation.
FLASH NEWS
The Islamic Religious Community (IRC) three days ago sent a letter to the government, the main Coordination Crisis Headquarters and the Committee for Infectious Diseases, in which it warned that if a curfew is imposed for the entire weekend, during the Eid al-Fitr holiday, then they as competent bodies will lose the trust of all believers of the Islamic community, having in consideration that the country is about to have parliamentary elections.
However, even though the government has still not made a decision whether there will be a curfew during the Eid al-Fitr and St. Cyril and Methodius holidays, as the Committee for Infectious Diseases has proposed, the IRC are not waiting for the decision and have issued guidelines and measures that should be carried out in every Mosque for when the Eid al-Fitr prayer is performed.
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“Because we are in a Technical Government, every single proposal, that is, law on borrowing, is signed by me together with the additional deputy minister. I assume that the reaction has a purpose, because this loan is waiting to be signed”, said Minister of Finance Nina Angelovska replying to a journalist question about the World Bank report in relation to the loan for dealing with COVID-19.
The loan, explained Angelovska, was negotiated two weeks ago in cooperation with the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy and with the Ministry of Health, which are to use the funds for dealing with the COVID-19 crisis.
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“Hristijan Mickoski had thought that the MOI is MVRO-VMRO and had called internal control to pressure for the case “Gym”, said Bogdanka Kuzeska, SDSM spokesperson. She added that for the leader of the opposition party VMRO-DPMNE it is absolutely normal to pick up the phone and pressure the police to more quickly close his case with the gym.
“Even Nakje Chulev, under the pressure of his boss, Mickoski, rushed to defend him with an immature statement that members of the MOI hadn’t been wearing gloves, but rather, imagine, he said that it was a “reflection” from the light. The entire public saw the footage in the middle of the greatest health crisis”, said Kuzeska.
Dehran Muratov
Translation: N. Cvetkovska
