The Covid-19 ward in the Strumica hospital is filled to capacity. Currently 83 patients are treated there, 40 of them inpatient.

We have 23 specialists who are helping out and given the relatively good level of staffing, things are more or less normal. But we are concerned about the high number of patients, said hospital director Nake Gogov.

Gogov recently embarrassed Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, who is the main mover and shaker in Strumica, when he issued a social media appeal for donations for an ambulance. Under pressure from Zaev, Gogov swiftly deleted the plea, and Zaev donated a used ambulance to the hospital from his own pocket.