Kumanovo Mayor Maksim Dimitrievski is seeking answers about his positive coronavirus test. It forced top Government officials, including interim Prime Minister Oliver Spasovski and Healthcare Minister Venko Filipce into self-isolation, given that they met Dimitrievski in Kumanovo just a day before the test came out.

But a second test showed Dimitrievski negative and he likened the initial test to a witch hunt. The relationship between the Government and the Mayor of the hardest hit Macedonian city is deteriorating daily, and Dimitrievski blamed the Government of failing to provide the necessary support during a tearful TV appearance.

Kumanovo mayor talks emotionally about his experience with Covid-19: People responsible for our health lie

In this particular case, there were 17 or 18 days between the two tests, and 10 more days until the third test. That is enough for a patient to go negative, Healthcare Minister Venko Filipce said after he was called out by Dimitrievski. Filipce added that he himself will remain in self-isolation.

Dimitrievski blamed Filipce directly of lying about not knowing that top Kumanovo officials are being tested before coming for the meeting. Dimitrievski insisted that Filipce must have known that the members of the Kumanovo crisis committee are being tested and could be exposed, given the fast spread of the virus through the city. He accused the Government of playing politics, trying to shift the blame on him, and the overall situation appeared to be an intra-party fight between Dimtrievski and Oliver Spasovski, who also comes from the Kumanovo branch of the SDSM party.

Meanwhile, a review of the meeting in Kumanovo was performed by the state sanitary inspection. Filipce said that the review will be given to the Interior Ministry, implying that Dimitrievski can even face a criminal case over the way the meeting with the Government officials was organized. The Government officials decided to come to Kumanovo in a move that also had a major PR element, as a show of support to the city at a time when constant calls from Dimitrievski to impose a quarantine were being ignored. Dimitrievski demanded a full lockdown and quarantine similar to the one introduced in Debar, but given that Kumanovo is a much larger city, the Government likely had no resoures to quarantine the city.