Healthcare Minister Venko Filipce announced that the Government will restore the curfew if the current measures fail to reduce the number of coronavirus infections. The Government banned club and even home parties, evening gathering in public spaces and mandated the wearing of masks even in by yourself in the open.

I honestly believe that these measures will bear results. But if they don’t there will definitely be a decision to restrict movement. We will first cut back the working hours of some companies, and then restrict movement of citizens. We saw what happened in countries that were quick to open kindergartens and schools and we learnt from that, Filipce said.

Macedonia had curfews since late March until June, when the epidemic was declared as overcome, only to see a spike related to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The base number of cases remained high for months, and is now spiking again with the start of autumn.