Today is by far the most difficult day for us: Vucic talks about coronavirus cases in Serbia

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said there are at all times about 300 volunteers who are protected, working to put together aid packages for senior citizens. He also said that today is the most difficult day so far, and that tomorrow will be much worse.

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Vucic said that more than 260 people have been tested since yesterday and that about 500 citizens would be tested during the day. He said that in a day or so, about 3,000 people will be tested each day, which will increase the number of known coronavirus cases.

"We fear that the number of those infected who came from abroad is terribly high," he said, adding that the more work is done on testing, the worse the results.

"It's better to look the truth in the eye and face the problem rather than hide it under the rug until disaster strikes," he said.

"I hope we were able to stop a rapid outbreak in Kikinda, but Belgrade is also by far the biggest focal point," said the president.

About testing done in private hospitals

Asked if private hospitals can test for coronavirus and how they would be involved, he said that one hospital has been included so far.

"They can't do testing easily, everyone knows where the labs are. The labs are our bottleneck and now we are solving that problem. We have no problems with testing kits, but with labs that need to take those tests. Everyone's help is welcome. There are always people at the beginning of a crisis who think it will be easy, and when the crisis starts, few people remain to fight," said the president of Serbia.

Photo: Tanjug/Zoran Zestic

He also said that smaller labs can handle up to 1,000 tests and large ones 2,000+, so work will be done now to bring in the big labs.

About accommodation of patients at Belgrade Fair

He said he faced criticism regarding the placment of patients at the Belgrade Fair, and explained why it was not possible to put people in hotels:

"The Chinese chose it (the Fair) because it suits them the most because of its patency. If we put someone on the third or fourth floor of a building, what if they die -then we need to spend half a day disinfecting the space. We can't take them out, we can't do anything. The Fair makes the whole job easier, and someone who needs to spend 14 to 21 days in that hall, I don't care if they're not comfortable, we are fighting to save their life," he said.

Appeal to pensioners: Stay at home

The president of Serbia repeated his appeal to the oldest citizens not to go outside in any way, and added that otherwise, all of Belgrade's cemeteries will not have enough space for everyone.

Photo: Tanjug/Zoran Zestic

"Please, pensioners, don't go out, please listen to your state," said Vucic.

Vucic today visited volunteers packaging aid packages for 173,000 Belgraders over the age of 65 whose pensions are less than 30,000 dinars.

"We only made one mistake, and we will pay a heavy price for it"

Regarding the criticism about accommodation facilities in Subotica, the president said:

"Our goal is that as few people as possible are on the street, if they thought that everyone would have the best conditions - they won't. We only made one big mistake that we could not avoid because of the Constitution - we wouldn't even have half the problem, not even a quarter if we had I not made that mistake, which is letting our citizens enter the territory of Serbia (returning from abroad). And since we let in one group from Bali, now another is waiting. Our people are all over the world. Imagine if we didn't have Air Serbia, would would we do, and it serves to fly in aid from China. We're bringing them in (our citizens) every day and they are always dissatisfied, what can you do, I am pleading with these people to be disciplined and there's nothing else I can do today. We have shown how big a heart Serbia has and we will pay a high price for that, because Serbia's good to everyone only when times are hard," said the president.

(Telegraf.rs)