The opposition VMRO-DPMNE party calls on the SDSM led Government to make enough face masks and disinfectant available for public, given the incidents of price gouging and hoarding. VMRO also calls for cuts in the work schedule of the public administration, sending half of the employees home to reduce the danger of spreading the virus.

They came up with PR slogans, but we lack meaningful measures. We ask the Government to come to reason, accept our offered hand and adopts the measures we are proposing. They are necessary and very urgent. This mustn’t turn into a race for scoring points. The stakes are enormous, party leader Hristijan Mickoski said yesterday as the Government ignores the opposition’s proposals.

We also urgently need the creation of a national control body which would oversee and control the preventive measures, VMRO-DPMNE said in a press release. The party proposes one off financial aid packages to those infected and free treatment.

Regarding the economic hit, VMRO-PDMNE proposes that individuals and companies who are hit by the economic impact of the epidemic, are exempt from paying their loan rates for March. A proposal to cover up to 50 percent of the payrolls for the worst hit companies from the budget should also be looked into, the opposition party said.