Coronavirus response: NATO boosts capacity of North Macedonia to deal with coronavirus crisis
North Macedonia is using NATO’s Next-Generation Incident Command System (NICS) to coordinate its national response to the COVID-19 crisis and to provide its public with real-time information and advice.
In 2019, North Macedonia adopted the NICS system to coordinate all parts of government in the event of an emergency. Experts from the Crisis Management Centre in North Macedonia have now quickly adapted the system to enhance the country’s response to the coronavirus.
NICS provides the public with real-time information on the current status of the pandemic in their area as well as information on who to contact for items such as food and medicines. The public website can be found here - http://nicspublic.cuk.gov.mk
The system also enables all of North Macedonia’s institutions, as well as organisations like the Red Cross, to communicate and coordinate their activities as effectively and efficiently as possible.
North Macedonia will formally become the 30th member of NATO later on Friday (27 March 2020), upon depositing the instrument of accession to the North Atlantic Treaty with the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C.
The NICS system is part of the NATO Science for Peace and Security (SPS) project “Advanced Regional Civil Emergency Coordination Pilot” (ARCECP), a collaboration between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory (MIT LL), the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) and the nations of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia and Montenegro.