on this day, filipče met with the chinese ambassador in north macedonia, zhang zuo, and it was agreed that all sinohydro workers would have to undergo a 14-day quarantine before returning to their posts in north macedonia. following a meeting with filipče on 15 february, who representative jihane tawilah announced that they regard north macedonia's system for early detection and early intervention of infectious diseases as one of the best in the region. on 24 february, on a meeting of the centre for crisis management, it was decided that all passengers arriving from northern italy will be required to enter the country from a reduced number of border passes and that they will be interviewed by the police and the specially appointed medical staff. at the skopje airport, thermal cameras would screen all arriving passengers regardless of the destination, and thermal guns at ohrid airport would screen patients arriving from high-risk destinations. it was also announced that apart from the clinic of infectious diseases in skopje, three more hospitals (in štip, veles and gostivar) will receive potential covid-19 patients. filipče appealed to all macedonian citizens to cancel all but urgent trips to northern italy. at that point, the covid-19 outbreak in italy was at the very beginning, with about 220 confirmed cases and 7 deaths. the next day, 25 february, the government officially recommended all trips to northern italy to be cancelled. patients returning from northern italy would be given recommendations on what to do if they develop symptoms similar to covid-19: it was not required, however, for them to undergo a 14-day quarantine. also, several phone numbers were introduced for patients experiencing symptoms similar to covid-19, and potential patients were instructed not to visit the hospitals before calling these phone numbers. following a social media campaign by high school students, the ministry of health procured new quantities of soap and disinfectants for all schools and kindergartens in the country. on 26 february, the country confirmed its first case of sars-cov-2, a 50-year-old woman that got tested at the clinic for infectious diseases in skopje, arriving from italy where she had been sick for two weeks. the ministry of health held two conferences that day, explaining the contact-tracing system that was going to be used for every sars-cov-2 positive case: namely, all contacts of a positive person will be ordered to self-isolate for two weeks. wearing of face masks was recommended for all suspected cases; however, healthy persons were given recommendations not to wear masks. no additional measures were announced. on 28 february, the government recommended all mass gatherings to be cancelled: this included the carnivals in strumica and prilep. it was also recommended for all sports events to take place without any audience until 6 march. this measure was later extended to 13 march. the government also appealed to all employees in the state or local institutions, employees in the school system, as well as pupils and students who had traveled to risk countries in the past two weeks to avoid going to work or school. march: stricter preventive measures and sanctions were introduced starting from 4 march, wizzair passengers arriving from treviso and milan were required to fill a questionnaire during the flight. disregarding the recommendations and measures against the spread of the virus has been noted in the institutions as well. among the first positives of the virus was the director of the clinic for skin diseases in skopje, who did not call for an examination after returning from italy and went to work for five days. on the same day, 9 may, a total of 90 people who had contact with her or were present at the clinic were placed in two-week isolation, and the clinic itself was closed. the skin department and the skin disease clinic in štip are also closed because doctors from the institutions attended a symposium in skopje, where the director participated. minister venko filipče announced that non-compliance with anti-virus measures would be punishable by a fine of up to one year in prison. a similar case was reported on 20 march in kavadarci, where a doctor from the general hospital went to work despite the prescribed measure for self-isolation of his entire family. he was fined 4,500 euros. he was convicted of "failing to comply with health regulations during an epidemic." the director of the infectious diseases clinic in ohrid was fired on 29 march because the 66-year-old woman from struga, who is thought to have died of the virus, was not admitted to the clinic. sign on the floor saying to maintain a physical distance of 1.5 meters. a day after the case was discovered with the director of the clinic in skopje, the macedonian authorities started tightening the measures against the spread of the virus. on 11 march, all educational institutions in the country were closed. due to the introduction of this measure, the government decided that one of the parents of a child up to 10 years of age should have the right to stay at home with paid leave. since most of the infected were from the neighbouring municipalities of debar and centar župa, which are located in the western part of macedonia, on 13 march a crisis situation was declared in these two municipalities. they are practically quarantined, with an increased presence of emergency services and the deployment of an army to control the spread of the virus. at that time, there were currently 13 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection across the country. in the next few days, a series of measures have been introduced to massively prevent the pandemic, closing restaurants and shopping malls, as well as airports and border crossings for foreign nationals, banning mass public gatherings. on 18 march, the government led by technical prime minister oliver spasovski called for a state of emergency to be declared throughout the country. as the assembly was dissolved due to the announced elections, the request was forwarded to president stevo pendarovski. on the same day, pendarovski declared a state of emergency throughout the territory for at least 30 days. he announced this at a press conference at 6 pm. this is the first time in the history of the country that an emergency measure has been introduced. at the time of the introduction of the measure, there were 35 patients with coronavirus. with this, the government, in addition to the executive power, also received the legislative power in the country, so that it was allowed to bring decrees with legal force. pendarovski pointed out that the state of emergency is also important for the economy. pendarovski said that for the government to continue to function as a technical one, is a chance for the government and the opposition to work together and "not worry about their political ratings." from 23 march, a daily curfew began throughout the country from 9 pm to 6 am to deal with the pandemic. this prohibited the movement of the population anywhere in the country during these hours. authorities have criticized the timing of the curfew. the helsinki committee reacted that the purpose of this measure is unclear because, during the day parks, playgrounds and other public areas remained the main gathering places of large groups of people. in the following days, the ban on movement restricted contact between adults over the age of 67, who are considered a risk group, and young people under the age of 18, who may be carriers of the virus. farmers are excluded from the ban on the movement. in march, some municipalities called for a state of emergency on their territory. april: virus continued to spread, masks were required on 3 april, a complete ban on the movement of the population in the municipality of kumanovo during the weekend was introduced. during the introduction of the prohibition in this municipality, there were a total of 85 infected with the virus. in this case, only farmers were allowed to move around the villages, exclusively for work. on 14 april, debar and centar župa were officially released from the lockdown after 10 days without any cases. then, the army reallocated in kumanovo, where the situation was now critical. on 22 april, curfews were eased but everyone was required to wear masks or scarfs in public places and indoor places (like supermarkets, shops, public transport). warnings were given until 30 april. after that, people had to pay 20 euros for breaking the decree; 2,000 euros for people connected with law and 1,000 euros for responsible workers in a company. may: development on 8 may, the curfew on the weekends was eased. going outside in the weekends was allowed from 5 am to 7 pm like in the weekdays. health minister venko filipče said that starting from 14 may, there will be screenings in the kindergartens. the employees have already been recruited for work but they had to be tested first. on 15 may for example, 184 tests have been made: 106 in bitola, 6 in veles and 72 in skopje. only one worker was found positive, from bitola. the screenings continued throughout whole may, which even more employees are currently being tested. same day, it was announced that adults over 67 and young people under 18 were allowed to go outside from 5 am to 7 pm as the others. previously for 67> the time was from 5 am to 12 pm and <18 from 1 pm to 7 pm. furthermore, president stevo pendarovski extended the state of emergency on 16 may, which had expired, for 14 more days. on 22 may, the curfew for the following weekend changed due to the upcoming holidays. it started from 11 am sunday - 24 may, until 5 am tuesday - 26 may. statistics total confirmed cases number of new cases number of new deaths number of new recoveries demographic data no. of deaths per age group covid-19 deaths in north macedonia by age and gender classification deaths male female total age 90+ 6 0 6 80-89 47 11 58 70-79 113 40 153 60-69 140 37 177 50-59 66 23 89 40-49 27 11 38 30-39 6 1 7 20-29 4 1 5 10-19 0 0 0 0-9 1 0 1 unknown 45 all 410 124 578 source: stats in n. macedonia number of daily tests and positive cases aid international aid the countries and international organizations that have sent aid and funds to the government of north macedonia, to help fight the pandemic: european union sent ventilators, masks, gloves, testing kits and also secured 66 million euros for the macedonian government, to help with the crisis. serbia donated vaccines. bulgaria donated medical equipment. turkey donated 50,000 masks, 1,000 protective bodysuits and 1,000 covid-19 testing kits. slovenia donated 100,000 protective gloves, 100,000 protective masks as well as other medical equipment worth 110,000 euros. czech republic donated 1,000,000 face masks. norway donated 180,000 euros worth medical equipment to the macedonian health care system. qatar donated 500,000 surgical masks, 90,000 medical masks and other medical equipment. china donated 5,000 covid-19 testing kits and other medical supplies. united states donated 1.1 million dollars aimed at expanding the capacity and improving the capabilities of combating the coronavirus pandemic. on 29 april, the u.s. donated an additional 330,000 dollars to support vulnerable groups during the pandemic in north macedonia. personal donations macedonian software company nextsense, which has become the first company in the western balkans to launch a contact-tracing app to tackle the spread of covid-19, donated all its made money to the government of north macedonia. stopkorona! has gone live on 13 april, as a bluetooth-based smartphone app that warned users if they had come into contact with someone who was tested positive for the novel coronavirus, based on the distance between their mobile devices.