The dramatically lower number of newly confirmed coronavirus patients – just 7 in the past 24 hours, compared to the usual number of over 50 – is due to the major drop in testing, said Healthcare Minister Venko Filipce.

Only 207 tests were conducted in this period. Usually the number of tests each day is over 500.

There are variations in the numbers of newly diagnosed patients and it is possible that this is due to the lower number of tests. Last week we tried to identify as many of the patients who were in self-isolation as possible. The number of tests also dropped because of the Easter holidays, Filipce said during his press conference today.

The number of daily confirmed cases spiked at a little over 100 last week, but then dropped sharply as the Easter holidays began. Filipce today emphasized that it is way too early to say that this means the epidemic is being pushed back.