page_title: COVID-19 pandemic in North Macedonia
section_title: March 2020
hierarchical_section_title: COVID-19 pandemic in North Macedonia / Timeline with all events / March 2020
caption_attribution_description: English: Quarantined municipalities
context_page_description: The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached North Macedonia in February 2020. The initial contagion in the country was mainly connected with the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy as there are circa 70,000 residents of Italy from North Macedonia and resulted in many people returning to North Macedonia, bringing the virus with them. As of 9 July, over 7,000 cases have been confirmed in the country, due to its second wave caused by family reunions during Eid al-Fitr and the overall re-opening of the country to organize the parliamentary elections.
context_section_description: On 6 March, two more cases were confirmed positive: a married couple from Balanci, Centar Župa, who were residents of Brescia, Italy, and presumably returned to the country out of fear of the virus. They entered North Macedonia on 27 February and went to the clinic in Debar on 2 March. They were not initially tested for SARS-CoV-2, but when their symptoms were getting worse, they were tested on 6 March. After getting positive results, the couple was transferred to the Clinic in Skopje to be taken care of.
  On 9 March the number of infected people in the country increased to 7 - three family members of the cases registered on 6 March and Nina Caca Biljanovska, the director of the Clinic for Skin Diseases in Skopje. Biljanovska's incident caused controversy, as she did not self-isolate after returning from a vacation in Italy. Moreover, she had continued going to work and was a speaker at a conference attended by 100 people before getting tested. The Minister of health subsequently fired her.
  On 10 March, after a formal request from the mayor of Debar (the city where 5 of the 7 cases were found) and the controversies regarding Biljanovska the Ministry of Health of North Macedonia implemented more reliable measures to prevent further spreading of the virus, including temporary two-week closure of all education institutes (from kindergartens to universities), the prohibition of travelling to the most infected countries (China, Korea, Italy, France, Germany, etc.), the ban of all public events and closure of sports events to the public. Later that day, the first case was confirmed to tested negatively on the repeated coronavirus test. The patient, however, is still recovering in the hospital.
  On 11 March two more cases were confirmed positive, both from Debar They are related to the first cases registered in the town.
  On 13 March four more cases were confirmed positive. As all 4 were from Debar, the Government declared a state of emergency in the municipalities of Debar and Centar Župa. All movement inside and outside the two quarantined districts was banned; only people living there were allowed to return to their homes. Later on, President Pendarovski made a decision on the engagement of the Army in affected areas in Debar and Centar Župa. Also, it was announced that entries of foreign nationals to the country arriving from 'high-risk countries' would start getting denied.
  On 14 March, 8 people were tested for coronavirus, 6 of which returned positive (5 from Debar and one from Skopje returning from a trip to Barcelona, Spain). A total of 14 of the patients were hospitalized at the Clinic for Infectious Diseases in Skopje, while the 5 new cases from Debar remained in the local hospital.
  On 16 March, 7 persons (5 officially) were positive (4 from Debar, 1 from Skopje and two tested in a private clinic). The patient in Skopje had just returned from a trip to the Netherlands via Vienna, the two additional cases tested positive in the private Žan Mitrev Hospital. They got retested by the public laboratory the following day, and their positive results got confirmed. Because of the increased number of cases, both domestically and globally, the Government of North Macedonia decided to close the two international airports (Skopje and Ohrid) and ban foreigners from entering the country. The ban does not affect diplomats and medical personnel (which are required to obtain permission from the Ministry of Interior) and truck drivers.
  On 17 March 5 new positive cases were confirmed - 4 in Debar (two nurses and two doctors, one of whom was Arben Agolli, former mayoral candidate and political activist) and one in Skopje, raising the number to 32. Political leaders decided to postpone the early parliamentary elections scheduled for 12 April.
  On 18 March, 4 new cases were confirmed positive, all of them Macedonian citizens from Skopje coming from Belgium Prime Minister Oliver Spasovski announced that the Government is considering declaring a State of Emergency in the country, something that had never happened before. The State of Emergency w
caption: Quarantined areas on 13 March in red
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