Experts warned Healthcare Minister Venko Filipce that using flammable insulation in the modular Covid hospitals is very dangerous, VMRO-DPMNE official Dragan Kovacki said during a press conference today.

According to Kovacki, Filipce ignored direct warnings about the safety of the 19 improvised hospitals whose construction he was overseeing, and prompted experts to walk out from the process.

We ask Minister Filipce, is it true that he was directly warned from an expert that these wall panels must not be installed in the hospitals. Is it also true that an argument ensued during this meeting and the experts walked out? Put differently, Minister, were you consciously placing money before safety?, Kovacki said.

The hospitals were built under a crony contract with two companies, one of them owned by former Deputy Prime Minister Koco Angjusev. The Covid ward in Tetovo burnt down on September 8th, with catastrophic loss of life – 15 patients and their relatives died in the flames. Video from the fire shows that the hospital burnt within minutes, the fire quickly tearing through its thin walls made of plastic and obviously flammable insulation.