The Stip hospital said that its infectious diseases ward is over capacity and they’re forced to expand into another ward, used by patients with neurological issues.

We are activating our plan B, moving the neurology department, with all patients and staff to the urology department, and clearing it out for Covid-19 patients. This will give us 15 additional beds in a compact unit, said doctor Diana Siskova from the infectious diseases department.

She said that there are currently 42 Covid-19 patients treated in Stip. The virus spread in this city mostly through the textile mills, which employ large numbers of people in cramped conditions. Macedonia is going through a major Second Wave of the disease, sparked mainly by the disregard for social distancing rules during the Muslim month of Ramadan, and the Healthcare Ministry was forced to convert a major childrens’ hospital in Skopje into a Covid-19 clinic, after the two clinics that treated the most serious patients were filled to capacity.