Macedonia suffered its worst daily infection rate of the pandemic today, as 2,269 of the 7,038 tests came back positive. The Healthcare Ministry also informed that 13 patients died over the day, and 11 earlier unreported deaths are now confirmed.

The spike in new cases is largely due to the free-wheeling New Year’s Eve celebrations and, likely, the spread of the omicron variant. The number of active shot up to 17,218. Of them, over 9,000 are in the capital Skopje.

The 13 deceased patients were aged between 52 and 87. The total number of deaths from the pandemic is now estimated at 8,139.