VMRO-DPMNE called on Healthcare Minister Venko Filipce to resign after his mishandling of the coronavirus epidemic and its politization. The call comes as Macedonia faces a major spike in newly diagnosed Covid-19 cases. Data from the Healthcare Ministry showed nearly 400 new cases for each of the past three days, and while the number dipped slightly on Saturday to 383, it was from a much reduced number of tests, which in turn increased the percentage of positive tests.

We’ve reached nearly 800 deaths and the share of positive tests is over 20 percent. These are grim records. Is Filipce even aware what the public is facing? The 16 field hospitals he promised are nowhere to be seen and medical professionals are leaving the public sector. Filipce left the citizens to fend for themselves, VMRO-DPMNE said in a press release.

The Minister spinned the epidemic as over in June, when his SDSM party wanted to hold quick “corona elections” only to see the numbers skyrocket throughout that month and remain high until the current new spike. In his defense, Filipce accused VMRO of stalling their approval for a major new loan in the pre-election period, which he said contributed to the lack of preparation, despite the fact that the SDSM dominated Government had executive power to act and went ahead with the loan over objections from a sidelined VMRO official.