The daily press conference on the state of the coronavirus epidemic descended into angry recriminations, after the head of the Committee on infectious diseases Zarko Karadzovski said that the Second Wave of the epidemic was caused by the long and massively attended iftar dinners held during the month of Ramadan. This was met with resistance from Albanian journalists who demanded to hear if other religious services also contributed to the spike.

The spike that came after May 26 is due to the total disregard for certain measures we proposed. These were the proposals that people wear masks, that they avoid grouping in more than two. This all hit us as a boomerang. It was all due to the disregard of the restrictions during the religious holiday of Ramadan Bajram (Eid) and the iftar dinners, Karadzovski said, in a direct statement that caused an angry response by Albanian journalists participating in the video press conference, who demanded that he also speaks out about Christian religious events that were held in the mean-time.

If fell to healthcare official Arben Ziberi, who is also an ethnic Albanian Muslim, to explain the facts – that the spike in the epidemic is most pronounced in majority Muslim Albanian parts of the capital Skopje, such as the Cair district, and that it was clearly caused by violations of social distancing norms during the month of Ramadan. Ziberi said that of course citizens in other, majority Macedonian parts of the capital, also violated the curfew restrictions, but that the data clearly says that the spike was largely caused by family gatherings in Cair and other majority Albanian parts of Skopje and other cities.

Karadzovski added that the Committee has recommended a full quarantine across the entire country during the month of Ramadan, but that this draconian measure was not accepted by the Government. “The virus does not discriminate by religion or nationality”, Karadzovski added.

Karadzovski also nervously responded to a journalist who asked him and Healthcare Minister Venko Filipce if they will assume responsibility for the fact that Macedonia has managed the crisis by far worst in the entire region. Karadzovski took the question as an attack on his expertise and said that he holds an unpaid office which has caused him much hardship during the past months and said that Minister Filipce is welcome to remove him tomorrow if he thinks that would be best.

Meanwhile, the Government called on the Committee led by Karadzovski to propose additional measures on how best to prevent the spread of the virus. The Government ordered a relaxation of measures two weeks ago, as it was angling to hold early elections, only to be caught unprepared with the major spike in coronavirus cases. A decision on whether to reintroduce an evening curfew in four major cities will be made tomorrow.