Skopje, 9 February 2022 (MIA) – Health Minister Bekim Sali told Kanal 5 television that increasing vaccination coverage of the population is a precondition for lifting COVID-19 preventive measures, including wearing masks, hand hygiene and social distancing. According to him, however, with this pace of vaccination, we will find ourselves in a situation where the pandemic in the world will end and it will continue in our country for another month. “We can see that Denmark and Great Britain have lifted the restrictions however their vaccination rate is 86% and in Italy is 91% and in North Macedonia it is 41%, and unfortunately, we have no ground to lift the measures," Sali said late on Wedesnday. According to Sali, the low vaccination rates are due to the fact that some people are distrustful of the quality of vaccines, and added that all vaccines are appropriately stored. “The vaccines received from Italy are valid until the end of July this year. We are already taking measures and this is part of that campaign that we have safe vaccines, and those who have passed the deadline will be properly destroyed,” Sali said.