President Stevo Pendarovski and Prime Minister Zoran Zaev announced that a crisis situation will be declared in Macedonia tomorrow, for a period of 30 days. The two met with the national security council today, convened by Pendarovski, to discuss the spiking number of coronavirus cases in the country.

This will allow the use of the military and rule by executive orders, although it is not immediately clear what orders would be made. Healthcare Minister Venko Filipce said that it will allow the Government to use privately owned hospitals for the treatment of Covid-19 patients. Filipce’s department was humiliated recently with numerous cases of people who would solicit donations for treatment in a private hospital, citing the appalling conditions in publicly run hospitals.

This is not to nationalize private hospitals, but to manage them in a way which the Government sees fit. Private property remains guaranteed in the Constitution, Pendarovski said.

According to Zaev, the private hospitals will be reimbursed for their services with up to 30 percent of their current prices.

In the management of the crisis, the number of patients instructs the better management of physical resources of the hospitals and the medical personnel resources. In stead of just the public sector, we can now manage the private sector as well, with the goal of providing sufficient  beds, hospitals and the like, Zaev said. One of the biggest such clinics is the Acibadem hospital in Skopje, whose owner, Jordan Orce Kamcev, was the target of the now infamous Racket scandal and faced extortion from Zaev’s cronies.

Pendarovski added that this does not automatically mean a curfew. It remains the right of the Government to install one if it feels it needs to. Zaev said that for the time being, citizens are merely advised not to go out after 21h, and Filipce added that a curfew would not be productive at the moment.

This is the first time a crisis situation has been declared on the whole of Macedonia – such conditions are currently declared on the borders with Greece and Serbia to combat the migrant crisis. Macedonia was under a state of emergency for much of the spring, which is similar, with some legal differences.