Flights to and from the United Kingdom are banned starting Tuesday after a coronavirus mutation has been identified in the country. The ban will be in place until Dec. 31 according to a decision of the government, adopted at a session yesterday following a recommendation of the Commission for Infectious Diseases.
Also, all citizens who will arrive in direct flights from the United Kingdom, including those arriving via land borders, will be ordered to self-isolate for 14 days.
Meanwhile, the authorities are working on procuring COVID-19 jabs. In addition to the COVAX facility of the EU, North Macedonia authorities have started negotiations with vaccine manufacturers to provide the vaccine directly from them.
On Monday, PM Zoran Zaev said efforts have been made on time for vaccine procurement. He said he expected a solution to be found in the coming days to buy the shot directly from the manufacturers.
“The Public Procurement Bureau has been ordered to find a solution for the country to buy the vaccine directly from the manufacturers. If the Public Procurement Bureau cannot find a solution, then the Health Minister with the Finance Ministry and the government’s general secretariat will work on amending the Law on Public Procurement to include a provision on COVID-19 regulating the procurement of vaccines, medicines, etc.,” he stated.
According to him, there’s also the opportunity to get the vaccine via the neighbors Greece and Bulgaria.
So far, North Macedonia has secured financing to procure 833,000 shots.
COVID-19 inoculations is expected to be kicked off across the EU in the coming days after the bloc has approved conditional authorization of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.
The United States has also started vaccinating people against COVID-19 after a rollout of the Moderna-produced jabs.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said Monday it is likely that a vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech is also effective against the new coronavirus strain that caused dozens of countries to suspend their flights to and from Britain, dpa reported.
Across the world, 77,5 million people have been infected with COVID-19. There were 54,4 million recoveries and at the moment, there are 21,4 million active cases. Death toll stands at 1,7 million.
Since the onset of the epidemic, North Macedonia has registered 78,434 confirmed coronavirus cases, while 55,155 patients have recovered.
The death toll has reached 2,314.
At the moment, there are 20,965 active cases across the country, of which 11,609 are registered in the capital Skopje.
