Microbiologist Dr. Nikola Panovski believes that the small amount paid by the country for protection against COVID-19, incomparably much less than other EU member states and candidate countries in the Western Balkans for assistance from the European Solidarity Fund, is because the citizens paid the difference out of their own pockets.
Macedonia within the first four months of the pandemic had to spend a minimum of 30 million 852 thousand euros according to the EU projection to receive 771 thousand and 300 euros from the Union Solidarity Fund. But the data from the Secretariat for European Affairs headed by Nikola Dimitrov was shocking that the country spent only a little over 7 million euros.
“Citizens would be spared from paying, and I’m sure there was a greater need for these 200,000 tests. The testing would be even, and then only the ones that had money were tested. The richer municipalities had more patients and a false image was created,” the professor told TV Sitel.
Panovski says that a high amount is still paid from their own pockets for D-dimers, and in private clinics the treatment is up to 20,000 euros, while home treatment sometimes costs 500 euros.
From the tests so far, 250,000 citizens have paid for themselves, i.e. they paid 10 million euros.
