Nineteen deaths from Covid-19 were reported by the Healthcare Ministry today, and 1,158 new cases were diagnosed out of 6,256 tests.

The latest grim report in the on-going Fourth Wave of the epidemic was again focused on the Polog Valley region – six of the deaths were reported in Tetovo and five in Gostivar. The two cities hosted many of the tens of thousands of ethnic Albanian emigrants who came from Western Europe to spend the summer in their native towns and villages – often organizing massively attended parties and weddings. The new cases were also concentrated in the region – the capital Skopje has 353 new cases, while the much smaller Gostivar has 216. Tetovo had 122 cases and Kicevo, which is also a major emigrant community, has 71 cases.

The number of active cases is estimated at 8,675. The total number of deaths from the epidemic grew to 5,608.