SKOPJE, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- The government of North Macedonia decided on Tuesday to extend working hours for bars, restaurants and hospitality businesses across the country till 9 p.m. instead of 6 p.m. local time, starting from Thursday.
Prime Minister Zoran Zaev declared via a Facebook post that the decision taken at Tuesday's government session is based on the epidemiological guidelines from health ministry.
"This decision ends the extraordinary limitation of working hours in the catering facilities of gas stations, as well as for the guests accommodated in hotels, motels, hostels and other accommodation facilities, which will be able to work with the regular working hours determined by the law on work of catering facilities," Zaev said.
Last month, new restrictive measures were adopted, including closure of catering facilities from Dec. 18 to Jan. 21, in order to curb the spread of COVID-19 during the end-of-year and religious holidays.
North Macedonia is expected to receive the first batch of vaccines by February.
Zaev said Monday the neighboring country Serbia will provide North Macedonia with 8,000 doses of Pfizer vaccines against COVID-19.
While the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in some countries with the already-authorized COVID-19 vaccines.
Meanwhile, 237 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 64 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain and the United States, according to information released by the World Health Organization on Jan. 15. Enditem
