New coronavirus measures in Serbia: Schools to work, indoor meetings banned, Easter major concern

* In Serbia, 12 people have been infected with coronavirus so far * All eyes are now on a man from Pancevo who works in a company with several hundred people, and whom professionals didn't know had traveled to Italy

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic today met with representatives of healthcare and other institutions involved in the fight against coronavirus.

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The meeting began at 11 o'clock in the building of the General Secretariat of the President of the Republic in Belgrade.

After the meeting, President Vucic made his address, pointing out that Serbia has taken all measures.

"At the moment, there are 12 people in Serbia confirmed to have been infected with the virus. I think that everything we said at the previous press conference was clear and the call to citizens not to panic turned out to be fully justified. Today we will tell you what we have done and what we will do next. First of all, we listened to the (medical) profession. I'm not a doctor, neither is Ana Brnabic, to be smarter than the people who have saved many elderly people's lives in the country. We thought it was good to refer to the profession and only when we can do that we can boast, the results about our work can be good," he said at the very beginning of the address and stressed that Serbia keeps things under control in a very good way.

"2,234 vehicles have been fully inspected, of which 1,925 were aircraft. 204 decisions have been issued and 265 persons are being monitored. Yesterday, 29 people from the Nis airport were put under home isolation. 62 inspectors are now deployed at ten border crossings, while smaller border crossings with Bosnia and Herzegovina are on alert. Yesterday 10 vehicles with a total of 26 passengers were turned back from Batrovci. I said this to show how diligently, how seriously our services work and why we are managing to keep this epidemic curve from exploding exponentially, which has happened in much richer countries," said Vucic.

Stolen soap and toilet paper

He said it was not true that we don't have enough soap and toilet paper in schools and hospitals, and even added that soap is being stolen from hospitals.

"I would especially like to thank our doctors and medical staff, who did not ask for vacations or sick leave. They did not look for excuses but dealt with problems. Who showed how brave they were. I ask some others not to go to institutions, because we cannot put 1,500 soaps into each institution every day. Don't get me started on how much soap and toilet paper has been stolen from various public institutions. That is one of the problems we face. It is not true that there is no soap in schools. The truth is that it has to be resupplied 12 times a day," the president said.

The president wondered what was the point of walking into a pharmacy and buying 100 units of sanitizer.

"Why are you doing this?" he asked, announcing at the same time special incentives for healthcare professionals.

The president said that Serbia has enough ventilators, and these are the key machines in the treatment of those infected:

"We have hundreds of available ventilators. One patient is currently on a ventilator, while another has been taken off it. That tells you how well Serbia has prepared itself."

The worst case is a man from Kikinda

At the moment, according to him, we only have one person seriously ill from coronavirus, a man from Kikinda.

"This is a man who is the only one in serious condition today. He is in serious condition because he has other underlying ailments. He was admitted to the hospital for other conditions - his kidneys, and diabetes. It was only later that the presence of coronavirus was detected, but he then told us that he had visited his son in Milan. The entire hospital was in jeopardy," Vucic said, and asked people to say where they had been traveling:

"We can't have coronavirus brought into the surgery ward of a clinical center. Just tell us that you have been to Milan, so that we know we should check (for coronavirus) immediately, and this is especially dangerous in people who have other diseases. It's most dangerous for patients with high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, diabetics, and those with malignant diseases. I beg of you to say if you were in Milan or in northern Italy, say that," Vucic said and added that he cannot stand to see healthcare workers attacked, and that it's not true any of them said this was a ridiculous virus.

The president said there was no need to shut down schools for now, and this is the opinion of professionals.

"What is being done now is a ban on indoors public gatherings. Sports matches will be played without an audience. Also, all big border crossings will be opened while smaller ones will be excluded. A crisis will occur before Easter (April 19 in the Orthodox calendar) because then that's when our people come back from abroad. So we will ask our people in Italy, Germany... to return as few as possible. We cannot, of course, forbid it," said the president, adding that during that time all measures of protection will be in place also for the Turks who will be passing through our country.

Vucic said that in the past period alone, there have been more people sick from swine flu than from coronavirus.

He also revealed that now all eyes are on a man from Pancevo, whom professionals didn't know was in Italy and who works in a company with hundreds of other people.

He did not rule out the possibility that in the future people will die from coronavirus in Serbia.

He also asked everyone not to refuse medial assistance.

"We have a problem with those who refuse blood transfusions, who won't take antibiotics."

Epidemiologist Predrag Kon, chief of the Infectious Diseases Unit at the City Institute of Public Health in Belgrade, said that shutting down schools is unnecessary for now. He also pointed out that it is known exactly who had contracted the disease from whom, but that this will not be the case for long as the transmission of the disease is expected.

"We are at the beginning of coronavirus transmission. At the very beginning, we know exactly who got infected from whom. This situation is under full control. But we estimate that the transmission will start soon, that is, of those 12, their other contacts will start to get sick," Kon warned.

The measures taken so far have been aimed at slowing down the transmission of the disease and not have seriously ill patients.

"The entire goal of this fight is to save lives, and to prevent serious forms of the illnesses. No one has managed to contain the virus, but it has been slowed down. If we can slow it down we will not have many difficult cases. As for schools, this disease has not proven to take a serious form in school children. However, we will continue to monitor the situation," said Dr. Kon.

Epidemiologist Branislav Tiodorovic, an advisor to the director of the Institute for Public Health in Nis, said that healthcare teams of epidemiologists and infectologists found all the contacts that a woman from Lugano, Switzerland, communicated with in Serbia - during her stay in Nis and Kragujevac she infected seven people. The number of people she was in contact with is 24.

"Coronavirus virus is a disease that largely passes with a mild clinical picture, this was the case with this lady, she was able to travel, communicate... which is dangerous," he said, adding that the most important thing at this point is for citizens to understand that we are all together on the same mission.

Do not hide where you traveled and who you were in contact with

Director of the Clinic for Infectious and Tropical Diseases Dr. Goran Stevanovic asked citizens not to hide from their docotrs where they had traveled.

"This must in no way be hidden from doctors or worse, delays must not be made in seeking help from doctors. We will not be able to prevent serious forms of the disease (in that case). Even on this small sample, we see that the most difficult forms are developing in those who either didn't report (quickly enough) or didn't say where they had been," Stevanovic stressed.

According to him, six patients, mostly young people, are treated at the Infectious Diseases Clinic in Belgrade.

"These are mostly younger ones, who are handling the disease well. They have early stages of pneumonia but they are doing well. This virus is dangerous. It does not, however, have the Ebola mortality rates. But if you know you have been in contact and have early symptoms, do not hesitate to dial the number (of healthcare institutions). We expect more and more complicated cases, but of course, we will be happy if this doesn't happen," Stevanovic said.

Pulmonologist Branimir Nestorovic, from the Children's University Clinic in Tirsova Street in Belgrade, asked parents not to mix young children with their grandparents.

"Children are not a risk group, so it isn't necessary to close schools, but they can infect the elderly, so grandparents should not be babysitting them for a while," Nestorovic advised.

He recalled that the most at risk demographic are people aged 70 and older, while the mortality rate is much lower than previously thought.

"The Koreans found out that the mortality rate is 0.9 percent," he says.

Director of the Institute for Public Health of Vojvodina Dr. Vladimir Petrovic asked citizens who are unwell to stay home and contact the epidemiological service.

In addition to the doctors directly involved in the fight against coronavirus, all Serbian government ministers, as well as President of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce Marko Cadez and central bank governor Jorgovanka Tabakovic were present today.

In Serbia, 12 people have been infected with the virus. The first case was confirmed on Friday, March 6. Six patients are treated at the Clinic for Infectious and Tropical Diseases in Belgrade, four at the Clinical Center in Nis, while two are in the Clinical Center of Vojvodina.

So far, 130 people in Serbia have been tested for this virus at the Torlak Institute.

(Telegraf.rs)