Healthcare Minister Venko Filipce said that the “8th of September” hospital and clinics in the “Mother Teresa” center in Skopje are repurposing wards for the treatment of Covid-19 patients.

The Infectious Diseases Clinic, which is part of the large “Mother Teresa” center, is operating at near full capacity, and the personnel is exhausted with the weeks long spike in new cases, and a field hospital set next to it is also full. The other main clinic that treats Covid-19 cases, the “8th of September” hospital, is also struggling to deal with the influx of patients.

Filipce said that wards in the Neurology and Dermatology clinics, and at the Institute of Pulmonary Diseases in the “Mother Teresa” center are being prepared to take in Covid-19 patients, and that wards in the “8th of September” hospital – originally built as a large military hospital – are also at disposal for coronavirus patients.

I spoke with clinic managers and they are preparing lists of doctors and nurses who will be reassigned, in case of necessity, Filipce said.

As general hospitals in the smaller cities are also failing to cope with the influx of patients, Filipce insisted that “nobody will be denied care”.