On Friday, new restrictions, adopted by the government after being recommended by the Commission for Infectious Diseases, will be in place in the country to help slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Under the measures, enforced until Jan. 20, 2021, hospitality businesses will close at 6 pm, and organizing and holding of parties and celebrations during the holiday season is banned.
Also, New Year’s parties indoors and outdoors, organized by individuals or companies, are also barred.
Other restrictions include bans for hotels to organize holiday parties and celebrations. If already scheduled, they should be cancelled.
Restaurants as part of hotels, motels and hostels should close at 9 pm. They can be open only for their clients. Hotel bars should also close at 6 pm.
In line with the new restrictions, renting of holiday homes and other accommodations is banned so as to prevent grouping of people to celebrate the holidays. They, however, can be rented to one household.
The Interior Ministry (MoI) has started warning owners of holiday homes who plan to rent them for New Year’s Eve and Christmas by letting them know about the consequences, Oliver Spasovski said Thursday.
“Plans involving heightened control have been already prepared. We are starting next week and on New Year’s Eve, which means the police officers will have a lot of work, but public health is top priority,” the Interior Minister told a news conference answering reporters’ questions.
Police, Spasovski noted, will act based on norms and rules regulated by the legislation.
He explained that it is allowed a holiday home to be rented to one family. “However, it is considered a crime to rent a holiday home to a group of people, because it is considered as a direct endangerment of the lives and health of people,” Minister Spasovski said.
Health Minister Venko Filipche during Thursday’s visit to the Clinical Hospital in Shtip, announced that 7,600 public health staff are to receive one-time appreciation bonuses of Mden 30,000 for their hard work during the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the Public Health Institute’s weekly report for the period December 7-13, the number of new COVID-19 cases in North Macedonia has dropped, the Health Ministry said in a press release on Thursday.
The total number of patients treated at infectious disease departments in Skopje and across the country stands at 1,275.
Out of 2,347 COVID-19 tests carried out in North Macedonia in the past 24 hours, 657 new cases were registered, 920 patients have recovered and 31 passed away, the Health Ministry said on Thursday.
Since the onset of the epidemic, North Macedonia has registered 76,251 confirmed coronavirus cases, while 52,413 patients have recovered. The death toll has reached 2,225.
At the moment, there are 21,613 active cases across the country, of which 11,527 are in the capital Skopje
