After a day of about 1,000 new coronavirus cases, today’s daily report again spiked over 2,000. According to the Healthcare Ministry, out of 6,010 tests conducted during the past day, 2,071 came back positive.

This pushed the total number of active cases in the country upwards, to just under 20,000. Macedonia is in the midst of a major new wave, attributed to the New Year’s Eve celebrations and the spread of the highly contagious omicron variant.

The Ministry also informed that nine patients died of the illness over the past day. Their ages ranged from 54 to 91. The total death toll of the pandemic in Macedonia is estimated at 8,177.