The municipal crisis committee in Kumanovo again requested from the Government to declare a quarantine until May 4. Interim Prime Minister Oliver Spasovski, who is fro Kumanovo, and several ministers attended the meeting of the Kumanovo committee, but afterwards Spasovski said that he will be guided by the medical professionals in his decision.
Kumanovo is the worst affected large city in Macedonia, with 262 Covid-19 cases so far, and its Mayor Maksim Dimitrievski has accused his party branch colleague Spasovski of abandoning the city. Macedonia placed Debar under quarantine, but Debar is one tenth the size of Kumanovo, and its unclear whether the Government has the resources to keep Kumanovo supplied if it is locked down.
The city asked for a full two weeks of complete, round the clock lockdown that would start on April 21, when the Easter curfew ends, and last until May 4. Kumanovo authorities also asked for help to manage trash from households with Covid-19 cases, as well as to control the movement of illegal migrants who use villages around Kumanovo as a major staging point on the Balkan route and some of whom could be Covid-19 positive.
Opposition leader Hristijan Mickoski called on Spasovski to begin taking the situation in Kumanovo seriously. He hinted that rivalry between the two would-be leaders of the local SDSM party branch, Spasovski and Mayor Dimitrievski, contributed to the problems the city is facing.
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