Four patients have died and 26 new coronavirus cases have been registered in the country over the past 24 hours, bringing the total tally to 854, the Health Ministry said Monday.
Three patients treated at home with mild symptoms have recovered from COVID-19 today in Shtip.
Health Minister Venko Filipche said Monday two more laboratories – at the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts (MANU) and the Forensic Medicine Institute – will be put into function this week for the purpose of cutting waiting times for the coronavirus test results.
“This will increase the capacity by 50-100 tests, thus eliminating the long wait for results,” Minister FIlipche told a press conference. The MANU-based lab is currently reorganized and it is expected that the system will be operational by Wednesday and Thursday, resulting in a cut of waiting times to 24 hours.
Filipce also announced a screening in Debar, considering there are no new patients there. The donation of 20,000 anti-body screening tests will be used for this purpose. “We will do a screening of about 20-30 percent of the population in the region, assessing the people’s immunity. This will be an excellent model that could be implemented across the country once the epidemiological curve drops,” said Filipce.
