Dr. Kon reveals when Covid measures might be relaxed in Serbia: We are far from that...

"There will probably be a push in the Crisis HQ to extend the opening hours of some facilities by an hour, but this will be discussed in the coming period," said epidemiologist Predrag Kon

Despite the somewhat improved epidemiological situation with coronavirus in the previous period, the measures that are in force will most likely remain unchanged until the end of January, says Predrag Kon, an epidemiologist and a member of the Crisis HQ for the fight against coronavirus.

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He said that a large number of infected people are still being recorded on a daily basis in Serbia, and that we cannot yet talk about a quick relaxing of measures.

"We still have a partly unfavorable and partly unstable situation, depending on the area of Serbia. Belgrade still has close to 600 new cases each day. That's a high number. So we can’t talk about some quick easing. Overall, we need to go down to a two-digit number in order to even talk about that, we are still in the four-digit numbers, so we are still far from that," says Dr. Kon and adds that "opening hours will be extended for some facilities, but probably with fierce opposition from the medical part of the Crisis HQ."

However, he does not expect that to happen either, before the end of this month.

"It's very important that if the virus activity is going down, we don't allow it to rise again. We already have very relaxed measures. There will probably be a push in the Crisis HQ to extend the opening hours of some facilities by an hour, but this will be discussed in the coming period. I think that's ruled out during January," Kon stressed in a statement for Kurir and added that no deadlines have been set for the current measures, and that "there is not even any theoretical basis for something to change to such a degree in the second half of January to warrant the easing of the measures."

As for the response to the vaccination, Kon says he expects it to be even higher.

"Serious preparations are being made for setting up vaccination checkpoint and large centers, such as the (Belgrade) Fair. At the same time, teams are being prepared in healthcare centers. There is a lot of work to be done, which is being done now while there is not yet a large amount of vaccines," Kon told Kurir, and advised citizens to choose the first vaccine that is available and that they can get, in order to receive protection as soon as possible.

(Telegraf.rs)