Bali Alili, head of the Debar general hospital, informed the public that the additional space opened up for Covid patients is now full, and that more departments of the hospital will have to be converted into Covid wards.

We now have 38 patients, and 33 of them require oxygen support. The out-patient ambulance treats at least 30 people a day, Alili said.

Like other largely Albanian and heavily emigrant cities, Debar was devastated in the current wave of the illness. Seven citizens had to be sent for treatment in Skopje, due to the severity of their symptoms, and one died today, Alili said.