North Macedonia speaker Talat Xhaferi is hospitalized. Is he COVID-19 infected?

 Talat Xhaferri

 The Speaker of the Parliament of North Macedonia, Talat Xhaferi, was hospitalized to the Infectious Diseases Clinic in Skopje on Friday, but it has not been clarified whether it is a coronavirus infection. Mr. Xhaferi had experienced health problems during the last few days, his associates said.

Meanwhile, the new parliament that emerged after the July 15 elections should be gathered in early August and this session is convened by the outgoing speaker of parliament - Mr. Xhaferi.

According to the rules of procedure of the parliament, its chairman appoints the founding session of the new parliamentary composition twenty days after the results of the parliamentary elections are formalized. If he/she is not able to be present at the session, then it is chaired by the oldest MP. The first session also elects the new speaker of parliament.

Two other officials of the Democratic Union for Integration have announced that they have tested positive for COVID-19: Arbër Ademi, who is the current Minister of Education and member of the new parliament, and Kreshnik Bekteshi, Minister of Economy, who have been active during the election campaign during which coronavirus protection protocols and measures were not always implemented.

The coronavirus situation is critic in North  Macedonia for several weeks, killing several people every day. In the last 24 hours alone, 6 people have died and 129 new cases have been reported. Five of the victims are from Skopje and one from Struga. Within this time interval, 1,535 tests were performed, while 109 people were cured of the virus. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, 451 deaths have been recorded out of a total of 9,797 affected, of which 4,092 remain active and 5,254 are healed.