According to estimates, there is currently no reason or need to extend the state of emergency. This is what the Government told “Fokus” when asked whether they will request a new extension, given that the 14-day extended state of emergency ends on Saturday, June 14.

Considering that the healthcare system is ready for the upcoming period, economic measures are fully regulated and in the implementation phase, as well as for possible new restrictions in the future state of emergency is not needed, the Government said.

However, including today, in just nine days, since the beginning of June, a total of 1,016 new coronavirus cases have been registered in Macedonia, namely one third of the total number of patients registered in the entire period of three and a half months since the first registered case.

An alarming number of 1,424 cases are active. 24 people lost their lives.

Number of new infections and deaths in June 2020

In an analysis by the non-profit organization Deep Knowledge Group made for the Forbes magazine on the response of selected 200 countries in the world to the Covid-19 pandemic, Macedonia is on the devastating 103rd place, in company with the Dominican Republic, Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Kyrgyzstan, Mauritius and St. Lucia.

While the entire region, country by country, declares victory over the coronavirus and opens its borders, Macedonia remains isolated, and a mandatory 14-day quarantine has been introduced for its citizens in a growing number of countries, such as Bulgaria and Slovenia. In Montenegro, though, we are not welcome at all.

The Minister of Transport and Communications Goran Sugareski himself confirmed today that it is too early to talk about opening the airports. Two days ago, the Minister of Health, Venko Filipce, said the same about the borders.

Sugareski: It is still early to open the country’s airports

So this begs the question: If the country is dealing well with the so-called “second wave,” which, as the WHO has pointed out, is not a second wave at all, but an escalation and losing control over the first one, then how can one explain these numbers?

The answer is politics. If the state of emergency is not extended, and the elections are to be held within 22 days after the state of emergency ends, it will mean elections on July 5. Something that, according to some of their analysis, suits SDSM and Zoran Zaev very well. Why else would they insist on this date with half the party in self-isolation?

But, pretending that everything is fine by relaxing the measures in the middle of the peak of the disease, the government led by SDSM, together with Zaev, is only playing with the lives, physical and mental health of the citizens.

With 1,424 active Covid-19 cases, the situation today is much worse than on May 30, when the decision to extend the state of emergency was made. On that day, the number of active cases was 498, almost three times lower than today.

However, there is no decision to extend the state of emergency, and at today’s government session it was not decided to introduce new restrictions and curfews, but only to enhance the controls of the Ministry of Interior and the inspectorates.

Half of the population believes that Macedonia’s coronavirus response is the worst in the region, 40% are in favor of September elections

Citizens yesterday did not receive an answer as to why they were locked down for three days during the extended weekend, nor was there an answer about their concern that 20,000 cars left Skopje before the curfew began and whether in two weeks time we will have escalation of the situation and new hotspots in places where there were no more active cases.